James Arnett Friesen Press 384 pages, hardcover, softcover, and ebook
Reviewed by Emily Mernin
It may be hard for modern readers to imagine Manhattan as a rural island or New York City, now home to over eight million, as “a mere smudge along the shore far across the bay.” It might be difficult, too, for anyone who has travelled through New Jersey — the most tightly packed state, according to the U.S. Census Bureau — to picture it as it once was: a sparsely populated British colony of rolling hills, farmland, and small villages.
This year marks the semiquincentennial of the start of the American Revolution, the brutal eight-year war that resulted in independence from Great Britain. Much of the conflict unfolded in Philadelphia and in what are now the five boroughs of New York, plus the verdant land between the two cities: the Garden State. In his second novel, The Monmouth Manifesto, James Arnett immerses readers in this landscape as he follows two yeoman farmers who enlist to fight as Loyalists.
Arnett’s plot and characters are drawn entirely from historical accounts, all of which are refer enced in his epilogue, afterword, and appendix; he changes few names and dates. The narrative begins with Richard Lippincott in early July 1776 at a Quaker meeting house in Shrewsbury, on the “northeastern coastal plain.” Described as “even- featured, lean, and about five-foot-nine,” the thirty- one-year-old listens intently to a discussion of “the current chaotic conditions of the Province of New Jersey”— specifically the spreading power of George Washington’s Continental Army. One of the meeting’s elders rattles off James and Richard fight side by side in the Battle of Staten Island in August 1777 and become unexpectedly close, even if James is “one of those polished arrogant Anglicans” and Richard is “one of those prickly sanctimonious Dissenters.” As the years pass — and their home lives feel increasingly distant — they influence each other greatly. Despite a series of rebel advances and London’s declining interest in its restless colonies, they help each other stay loyal to the cause. In 1781, after he learns of Maggie’s death, Richard rents a room for himself and Esther in Manhattan, where most of the Loyalists in the region have taken refuge. Although charting the moral evolution of multiple characters, Arnett zeroes in especially on Richard’s slow acceptance of bloodshed, military life, and revenge.
In 1782, Richard’s eventual comfort with violence culminates in his desire to person ally execute the rebel captain Joshua “Jack” Huddy. Richard organizes the prisoner of war’s hanging without the proper orders — a dangerous decision that surprises himself, Esther, and even James (who later resettles in Nova Scotia). The unwarranted murder of Huddy enrages the Patriots. They write the Monmouth Manifesto, a document “demanding that Washington retaliate” by executing someone on the British side. The future president selects a young officer, Charles Asgill, who (as in reality) ultimately sails back to London after six months of imprisonment.
Arnett’s rendering of this dramatic event, which came to be remembered as the Asgill Affair, is suggestive of the futile desperation of the British and Loyalist forces toward the end of the war, along with the self- abandonment required to commit senseless violence. I grew up in A hillside town in Essex county, recent advancements of the rebel cause, including an attempt to establish a “so-called State” and a “Declaration of Independence from Great Britain.” He then asks a question that rings throughout the novel: “How do we pacifists withstand the demands of a violent society?”
For Arnett, the short answer seems to be that they can’t. Within weeks of this gathering, Richard abandons his 100-acre farm “with its many saltwater marshes and estuaries,” his wife, Esther, and their daughter, Maggie, to join the Skinners, a volunteer regiment forming on Staten Island. Arnett writes long, reflective passages on Richard’s internal struggle to reconcile his peace- loving religious views with his new-found commitment to serve the Crown. After a failed attempt to challenge his slave-owning bunkmate, James Moody, Richard thinks, “Maybe I’m just not cut out to be a Friend. Not everyone is ”just a few kilometres west of Newark, facing the ever- changing Manhattan skyline. When I go back to visit, I inevitably drive past the many strip malls of Galloping Hill Road (down which the British retreated during the Battle of Springfield in 1780), catch the eastbound commuter train in Morristown (where Washington’s army headquarters were located), and run along the Palisades — a thirty- two- kilometre stretch of steep cliffs — near Fort Lee (where Thomas Paine composed much of The American Crisis).
Over the last 250 years, these places, like the notion of patriotism, have changed profoundly. It is compelling to find them reimagined here, as part of a richly drawn backdrop for a book about those on “the wrong side of history” (as the cover copy reads). In revisiting this chapter of civil strife, Arnett reminds his readers how careful we must be with what enthralls, ensnares, and enrages us.
Lesson Activity by Hank Bitten, NJCSS Executive Director
It is important for students to understand the constitutional procedures for the transfer of power in the event of the death or physical or mental incapacity of the president. The 25th amendment has been invoked three times since its ratification in 1967. Section 2 was invoked twice, and Section 3 was invoked once in 1981.
1973 Resignation of V.P. Spiro Agnew (R) when both houses approved Gerald Ford (R) as Vice-President
1974 Resignation of President Richard Nixon when V.P. Gerald Ford (R) became President and both houses approved Nelson Rockefeller (R) as Vice-President.
1981 Surgery for President Ronald Reagan following a gunshot wound.
Essential Question: Does the 25th Amendment provide a transition of presidential power from one person to another without being challenged?
Read Section 2 of the 25th Amendment and discuss the following scenarios:
Section 2
“Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.”
Scenario A:President Trump passes unexpectedly, and Vice-President J.D. Vance becomes President under Section 1 of the 25th Amendment.
Who should President Vance nominate as the new Vice-President? (Member of Congress, Governor, Cabinet Secretary, someone from the media, business executive, etc.)
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (Since Rep. Johnson is not able to vote for himself, the Republican majority is 219 with 218 votes required for a majority).
If Rep. Mike is not elected by the House, would the election of someone from the Democratic Party be accepted?
119th Congress, Senate (2025–2027) 51 votes needed for a majority.
119th Congress, House (2025–2027) 218 votes needed for a majority.
Majority Party: Republicans (220 seats)
Minority Party: Democrats (215 seats)
Other Parties: 2 Independents (Caucus with Democrats)
Total Seats: 435
Scenario B:President Trump passes unexpectedly between the 2026 Midterm Elections and the meeting of the new Congress on January 3, 2027.and Vice-President J.D. Vance becomes President under Section 1 of the 25th Amendment.
Who should President Vance nominate as the new Vice-President if the Democratic Party controls either the House or the Senate?
Should the current Congress (House and Senate) that was meeting at the time the Vice-President became President continue until a Vice-President was selected or should the newly elected Congress vote on the candidate?
Scenario C: Who should President Vance nominate as the new Vice-President if the Democratic Party controls both the House and the Senate?
Is there a Republican who would be acceptable to a majority of Democratic representatives in both houses?
What would happen if President Vance refused to nominate a Vice-President?
If we do not have a Vice-President and if the Speaker of the House is a Democrat but the Senate Majority Leader a Republican, should the person next in line to succession as president be the Speaker of the House as current law states or should the presidency go to the Majority Leader in the Senate who is from the same political party as the President?
Scenario D: If there is no Vice-President, would it be possible under Section 4 to declare that President Vance was unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office? (in the event of a physical, emotional, or mental incapacity.)
Section 4:
Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.
What ‘other body’ should Congress select?
If the Speaker of the House is a Democrat and the person next in line to become Acting President, could this be challenged if the Majority Leader in the Senate was a Republican (same party as President Vance)?
If a Democrat becomes Acting President, could this person fire all members of the Vance Cabinet and replace them with new officers consistent with his/her political party? (Democrat) Would this be challenged?
“In a purely legal sense, as Acting President, the Vice President can employ all the powers and tools of the office of the president. Historians have characterized the Acting President as playing “a critical role as decisionmaker,” and “tak[ing] care of the day-to-day business” of the White House. The Acting President has the constitutional authority to “move the troops, report on the State of the Union, propose a new budget, send judicial nominees to the Senate for confirmation, remove the secretary of the treasury, do virtually all the things that presidents do. He might even prepare to control his national party apparatus and to secure its presidential nomination.” (Page 44)
“Senator Bayh responded by noting that the Vice President does “not have the office of President but that of Acting President. He does not get the full powers and duties of the office of President unabated. He is Acting President.”
Setting this symbolic distinction aside, the Acting President would be constitutionally empowered to conduct the same acts as the President. In the floor debate in the Senate, for instance, Senator Bayh expressed his belief that the Vice President acting as President would be able to fire and appoint cabinet officials. When Senator Hart expressed concern that a Vice President acting as President would remove cabinet members to “consolidate[] his position” as Acting President, Senator Bayh admitted that this concern was legitimate, but declared, “we do not want a Vice President who is acting in good cause, say, for example, in a 3-year term of office, being unable to reappoint Cabinet members who may have died or resigned.” (Page 71)
Scenario 5: President Vance continually frustrates both Houses of Congress with a nomination for Vice-President.
According to the following statement from the Yale Law Reader’s Guide, could President Vance be impeached? From Yale University
“Depending on the circumstances, actions taken by the President or other officials to frustrate the Twenty-Fifth Amendment process may constitute an impeachable offense.” (page 8)
The 25th Amendment
Section 1
In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.
Section 2
Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.
Section 3
Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.
Section 4
Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.
Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.
Four books that have influenced my teaching of U.S. history are: the volumes in the Jefferson Papers Project, The Life of Henry Adams, The Life of Arthur Schlesinger, and Our Fragile Freedoms. These books have left a profound influence on me because each of them included a perspective of 50 years or more.
Eric Foner’s Our Fragile Freedoms is a series of selected documents and book reviews that he has authored over 250 years of our history. It is a collection of human stories in addition to documents, perspectives, historiography, and scholarly insights. In my reading I discovered new information and perspectives about enslaved persons, laborers, immigrants, and women. I have also met Eric Foner, our lives share a similar chronology of the second half of the 20th century and the first 25 years of the 21st century. Just when I thought I had mastered everything that needs to be taught in high schools, colleges, and in public discussions, I discovered somethings that are new and important in his book.
“Our Fragile Freedoms gathers together nearly sixty book reviews and opinion pieces I have written over the past quarter century, Originally published in venues such as the New York Review of Books, London Review of Books, The Nation, and The New York Times, they reflect a period of remarkable creativity among American historians but also intense controversy over the teaching, writing and public presentation of history. The book examines history as refracted through the prism of some of the most influential recent works of scholarship, while at the same time shedding light on my own evolution as an historian.” (Introduction, page xv)
The insights into the U.S. history curriculum are helpful to teachers who want to engage their students in investigating history and discussing the concept of freedom. Here are some examples:
1.Colonial America:“In South Carolina and Georgia, however, the disruption of the War for independence produced not a weakening of commitment to slavery, but the demand that the Atlantic slave trade be reopened. At the insistence of these states, the Constitutional Convention of 1787 forbade Congress from abolishing the importation of slaves until 1808. Given this window of opportunity, South Carolina brought in tens of thousands of new slaves, further reinforcing the African presence in the low country Black society.” (page 22)
2.President Washington:“Thompson (Mary Thompson, author of “The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret: George Washington, Slavery, and the Enslaved Community at Mount Vernon”, 2019) offers various explanations for Washington’s refusal to speak or act publicly against slavery. She points out that freeing his slaves would have meant financial disaster for his family. Like other Virginia planters, Washington was chronically in debt, largely because of his taste for luxury goods imported from Britain. Indeed, in 1789 he had to borrow money to pay for his journey to New York where his inauguration as the first president was to take place.” (page 35)
3. Fugitive Slave Law:“The first arrest under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 took place in New York-a city whose economic fortunes were closely tied to the cotton trade, and whose political establishment was decidedly pro-southern. On September 16, 1850, eight days after President Millard Fillmore signed the measure, two deputy U.S. marshals arrested James Hamlet at his job as a porter in a local store. Hamlet had escaped from Baltimore two years earlier and settled in Williamsburg, a Brooklyn village with a small Black population, along with his wife and three children, all born in Maryland.” (page 53)
4. Emancipation Proclamation: “’I cannot make it better known than it already is, that I strongly favor colonization,” Lincoln said in a message to Congress less than a month before he issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Oakes (Professor James Oakes, CUNY) calls Lincoln’s August 1862 meeting with Black leaders (not including Douglass), where he urged them to support colonization, “bizarre,” and explains it as an effort to “make emancipation more palatable to white racists.” And he notes, Douglass reacted with one of his most bitter criticisms of the president, “Mr. Lincoln,” he wrote, “assumes the language and arguments of an itinerant colonization lecturer shows all his inconsistencies, his pride of race and blood, his contempt for Negroes and his canting hypocrisy. (page 72)
5. Reconstruction:“Grant’s contemporaries recognized the Civil War as an event of international significance. One hundred and fifty years after the conflict began, the meanings they ascribed to it offer a useful way if outlining why it was so pivotal in our own history. The Civil War changed the nature of warfare, gave rise to an empowered nation-state, vindicated the idea of free labor, and destroyed the modern world’s greatest slave society. Each of these outcomes laid the foundation for the country we live in today. But as with all historical events, each outcome carried with it ambiguous, even contradictory, consequences.” (page 85)
As teachers, we need to understand the big picture of historical decisions and events over time. This is why it is important for students to learn about continuity and change as one of the core skills of our discipline. Our Fragile Freedoms helped me to grasp the complexity of the concepts of freedom and equality that social studies teachers introduce in kindergarten.
An important article and commentary in the book is “Everyday Violence in the Jim Crow South.” (pp. 201-210) This review of By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow’s Legal Executioners, by Margaret A. Burnham, New York Review of Books, April 6, 2023, provides specific examples of the abuse of power by people in local and state government against innocent citizens.
“In Westfield, a town near Birmingham, a female white clerk at a local store, claiming that a Black customer, William Daniel, had insulted her, called the police. When an officer arrived, he almost immediately shot and killed the alleged offender, even though, as Burnham laconically remarks, Daniel had committed no crime: ‘even in Alabama, there was no law against, ‘insulting a white woman.’” (p. 203)
Another commentary that engaged my interest as a high school teacher was “Tulsa: Forgetting and Remembering.”(pp. 211-220) The information in the Review of The Ground Breaking: An American City and Its Search for Justice by Scott Ellsworth in the London Review of Books, September 9, 2011, provides new insights and perspectives to this horrific tragedy that began with a minor encounter between two teenagers. Scott Ellswoth is from Tulsa and became interested in this race riot in his research for a high school history paper. He pursued his passion of this massacre as a college student at Reed College, and throughout his adult life. The discussion about the importance of local research has relevance to the teaching of history and its relevance to project-based learning.
The review of Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad by Matthew F. Delmont and An Army Afire: How the U.S. Army Confronted Its Racial Crisis in the Vietnam Era by Beth Bailey 2023) left me feeling uncomfortable. I think many teachers emphasize the role of the Tuskegee Airmen in teaching World War II and follow it up with a five-minute talk on President Truman’s Executive Order to embrace “equality of treatment and opportunity” in the military regardless of race, religion, and national origin. Because of my ignorance in this area, I never included examples of Jim Crow discrimination and the race problem in our armed forces. Our Fragile Freedoms provides graphic examples. (pp. 232-243)
In the middle of the book there are some of the most important insights and perspectives for teachers of 20th century United States History. They have a direct relationship to what students are thinking about today as they listen to or witness events that are challenging the values of liberty, equality and social justice. They offer teachers critical questions of inquiry regarding the continuity and change of America’s core values from the Declaration of Independence, Reconstruction Era, and Civil Rights movement. Allow me to summarize from examples on the New Deal and Civil Rights era from pages 243-267.
“We will never know precisely why Parks refused to leave her seat when ordered to do so, her decision was not premeditated but neither was it completely spontaneous. Perhaps it was because an all-white jury in Mississippi had just acquitted the murderers of Emmett Till, a Black teenager who had allegedly whistled at a white woman. Perhaps the reason was that she had inadvertently boarded a bus driven by the same driver who had evicted her twelve years earlier. Parks knew that talk of a boycott was in the air. In any event, in the wake of her arrest the boycott began.” (p. 248)
In the review of Riding for Freedom, teachers might ask if the foreign policy of the Kennedy Administration on the Cold War was mutually exclusive from the domestic policy of integration and racial justice. Many American presidents have faced challenging decisions regarding their promise for domestic reforms and unexpected international conflicts. Kennedy experienced this in his first year as president.
“Certainly, the photographs that flashed across the world embarrassed the White House. But the conflict with the Soviets also inspired deep distrust of any movement that included critics of American foreign policy. After a telephone conversation in which he urged Martin Luther King Jr. to restrain the riders, Robert Kennedy remarked to an aide, ‘I wonder whether they have the best interest of their country at heart.’” (pp. 253-254).
“The continuing distortion of the period (Reconstruction) by historians raised a troubling question, King had long identified the movement with core American values inherited from the nation’s founding. But what, in fact, were the nation’s deepest values? All men are created equal? Or something more sinister, exemplified by Reconstruction’s violent overthrow? King had originally believed, he told the journalist David Halberstam, that American society could be reformed through many small changes. Now, he said, he felt ‘quite differently,’ ‘I think you’ve got to have a reconstruction of the entire society, a revolution of values.’ Was the movement the fulfilment of American values or their repudiation?” (pp. 263-264)
These excerpts are only appetizers for the full meal that is within each review and the entire book. As students think about and debate the civil rights era, they gain an understanding of the civil rights movement, its brutality, its injustice, its inequality, and its struggle. Unfortunately, too many students only know one sentence from Martin Luther King’s speech, “I have a dream….” Teachers should have students read or watch the entire speech.
“We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protests to degenerate into physical violence. . . . The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. . . .
We cannot walk alone. And as we walk we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.
The genius of this book is that each chapter offers a new insight, a scholarly perspective, and a valuable lesson. I learned something new about integration, voting, the censorship of speech, the Chicago riots in 1968, and progressivism. The section on History, Memory, Historians is a must read for every pre-service teacher and every social studies teacher. The lessons here about historical omissions, social and intellectual history, and the lessons of history. Our Fragile Freedoms should shape the generation of social studies/history teachers who will be teaching students in the second quarter of the 21st century!
In this lesson, students learn about the bonds that unite Jewish Americans as an ethnic group, and the rich diversity that exists within the community. In addition, students will deepen their understanding of the multifaceted nature of identity across groups.
Essential Questions
● How are Jewish Americans an ethnic group?
● What visible and invisible components make up each person’s unique identity?
● How do the multiple components that make up identity help us understand the diversity of Jewish Americans?
● What are key positive and negative experiences of Jewish Americans both historically and today?
Learning Outcomes Students will be able to:
● Explain how Jewish Americans are an ethnic group that is connected through a shared history, ancestry, culture, religion, sacred texts, and more.
● Understand that Jewish Americans are remarkably diverse in appearance, skin color, ethnic subgroup, and religious practice.
● Analyze the visible and invisible components of individual and group identities and make connections to their personal identities.
● Develop a better understanding of other people, cultures, and ethnic groups, how all groups have commonalities and differences within them, and the parallels that exist between Jewish Americans and other groups.
● Determine central ideas or information from primary and secondary sources.
● IAmJewish:PersonalReflectionsInspiredbytheLastWordsofDanielPearl, Ruth Pearl and Judea Pearl eds., Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Publishing, 2004. (9 excerpts)
HANDOUTS
Identity Iceberg document, availableonline
Jewish American Diversity Fact Sheet, availableonline
Jewish Americans: Identity, History, and Experience Fact Sheet, availableonline
Lesson Plan
1. INTRODUCTION
Introduce the topic and emphasize that this lesson examines what unites the Jewish American community, as well as its diversity. While individual identity is personal, Jewish American group identity is based on ties of history, culture, ancestry, religion, language, celebrations, communal and familial traditions, common values, and a sense of a common ethnic peoplehood.
Further explain that this lesson explains some of the challenges Jewish Americans faced historically and continue to face today, including prejudice, discrimination, and antisemitism. It also explains experiences of acculturation and assimilation, and associated benefits and losses. Ultimately, students will be introduced to Jewish American history to deepen understanding of Jewish American experiences over time and Jewish American contributions to American society.
2. IDENTITY ICEBERG ACTIVITY
Provide students with the identity iceberg worksheet and explain that only a small part of an iceberg is visible above the waterline, while most of the iceberg’s mass lies below the waterline and is invisible. Tell students, that like an iceberg, some parts of identity are visible to others, while other parts are invisible.
Watch the video: “Diverse Jewish Stories: Jonah” (3:08 minutes) and ask students what they can determine about Jonah’s identity from what they viewed.
Explain that they are going to investigate various components of an individual’s identity. For this activity, students may choose to focus on their own identity, an imaginary student identity, or a celebrity’s identity. Emphasize that it is optional to use themselves as the subject in this activity, and that no one should disclose private information unless they would like to do so.
Either in small groups or as a whole group, students can brainstorm categories that will be used on the identity iceberg worksheet, or you can share suggested categories below, that include visible, sometimes visible, and invisible aspects of identity.
Suggestedcategories:
● Gender
● Race
● Ethnic appearance
● Visible religious signs: religious head coverings (kippah, yarmulke, hijab, turban); tzitzit (Jewish ritual fringes); cross, Star of David necklace, kirpan (Sikh religious knife), other)
● Age (child, middle schooler, teen, young adult, middle age, elderly, etc.)
● Language(s) (accent, second language, regional dialect, formality of speech)
● Religion/level of religious practice/spirituality/philosophy
● Family’s national origin/immigrant/refugee/forced migration
● Nationality/citizenship
● Violence, trauma, or intergenerational trauma
● Activity, passion, or a job that is an important part of identity
● Other cultural or group or family aspect of identity
With the list of identities categories handy, ask students to write in categories of identity on a blank identity iceberg worksheet that are:
● usually visible to others above the water line, in the top third
● sometimes visible, and sometimes invisible, close to the waterline
● usually invisible to others, in the bottom third of the iceberg
Ask for student volunteers to share their identity icebergs with the class. Identify commonalities and differences across the student examples.
MakingConnections
Think about groups whose identities are sometimes visible and sometimes invisible. What happens when members of these groups publicly express their identities?
The following are two options for an activity centered on learning about Jewish American diversity.
Option A: Arrange students into small groups. Provide each group with the Jewish American Diversity Fact Sheet (2 pages) and review the contents together. Instruct the groups to cut the document so that each fact is its own strip of paper. Next, have the students put the facts into groupings that they think go together, encouraging them to have no more than six groups. Once the facts have been grouped, have the students provide a title for each of the groupings. They then should review each grouping and revise until they are satisfied with their sorting. Finally, have each group share the titles they came up with, the facts they included with that title, and explanation as to how they arrived at the title and the facts that they have associated with it.
Option B: Have students read the Jewish American Diversity Fact Sheet (2 pages).
In small groups or as a class, have students discuss and respond to the following questions:
● In what ways are Jewish Americans a diverse ethnic group?
o Suggestedresponses: racial and physical appearance, ethnic subgroup, language, food and cultural traditions, religious observance, origins, etc.
● What bonds Jewish Americans across diversity?
JEWISHAMERICANS:IDENTITY,HISTORY,ANDEXPERIENC
o Suggestedresponses: shared Jewish history, ancestry, values, sacred texts, religious rituals, traditions, celebrations, culture, and a sense of common peoplehood.
● What is meant by the term “Jewish peoplehood”?
o Suggestedresponses: Jewish peoplehood refers to the idea that all Jews are connected to one another across time and geography and share a common destiny. Other identity categories fail to capture the complexity of Jewish group identity.
● What did you learn that surprised you?
o Suggestedresponses:Jews are incredibly diverse and are multiracial. There is not one way of being Jewish, but many, and there is no single physical appearance that characterizes what Jews look like. At the same time, Jews feel a strong sense of common peoplehood.
● Where have Jewish Americans come from?
o Suggestedresponses: Jewish Americans have ancestry from many different countries, and some Jewish Americans have lived in the U.S. for centuries. Many Jewish Americans are of Eastern and Central European Jewish descent. There is a significant Middle Eastern Jewish population in many parts of the U.S. (from Iran, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, and Yemen). Jewish Americans also have roots in North Africa (Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco), East Africa (Ethiopia), Central Asia (Bukharan Jews from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan), Central and South America, and beyond. Regardless of recent origins, Jewish Americans, like Jews everywhere, are connected to each other and to their ancestral homeland of Israel; Judaism highlights this connection in daily prayers and Jewish holidays.
MakingConnections
In what ways are other American ethnic groups diverse? Consider the diversity among other American ethnic groups and pan-ethnic groups (groups with origins in a large diverse region). Consider diversity among African Americans, Asian Americans, Latino/a Americans, and Native Americans.
o Suggestedresponses: racial and physical appearance, language, food and cultural traditions, religious observance, origins, ethnic subgroups, etc.
The following additional videos and texts can be viewed by students to provide examples of Jewish American racial, ethnic, and religious diversity, and may help to answer the previous questions on Jewish American diversity.
● Video Series on Jewish Americans: Faces of American Jewry, is a 2021 series of 2-3 minute long videos on Jewish Americans produced by the American Jewish Committee.
● Reading: “Being Jewish in the United States,” (2 pages), Facing History and Ourselves. Judaism’s religious diversity in three short readings by three teens on their relationship to Judaism with discussion questions.
4. I AM JEWISH: PERSONAL REFLECTIONS INSPIRED BY THE LAST WORDS OF DANIEL PEARL ACTIVITY
This activity is based on excerpts from the book, IAmJewish:PersonalReflectionsInspiredbytheLastWordsofDanielPearl.
Tell students that Daniel Pearl was a Jewish American journalist, raised in California. Pearl was working as the South Asia Bureau Chief of TheWallStreetJournal, based in Mumbai, India. In early 2002, soon after 9/11, he was kidnapped and later beheaded by terrorists in Pakistan for being Jewish. After losing their son, Daniel Pearl’s parents asked a diverse group of Jews to reflect on what being Jewish means to them in memory of Pearl, reflecting on Pearl’s last words which were: “My father is Jewish, my mother is Jewish, I am Jewish.”
Divide students into small groups and assign each group to read two or three brief excerpts from IAmJewish:PersonalReflectionsInspiredbytheLastWordsofDanielPearl. Provide them with the PDFs or digital versions so that they can respond to the following prompts on the excerpts regarding individual and group identity:
1. What elements of identity does the author stress? (culture, family, ancestry, history, religion, social justice, community, etc.)
2. Highlight or underline one key sentence or phrase from each excerpt to share with the class. 3. Why do Jews not fit neatly into racial and religious categories?
Ask students to share one word that jumps out on what being Jewish means to the writers and compile them in a shared visual medium for the class.
AdditionalResourceforIAmJewishActivity
The following additional video can also be viewed by students and used to answer the activity questions.
Video: “I Love Being Jewish,” (7:24 minutes) Jane Parven, high school student Jane Parven discusses her Jewish American identity, antisemitism, and goal of eliminating all forms of hate. 3/14/2018, Massachusetts
5. JEWISH AMERICANS: IDENTITY, HISTORY, AND EXPERIENCE ACTIVITY
Have students read the Jewish Americans: Identity, History, and Experience Fact Sheet (4 pages).
You may first want to explain and define the key terms from the Fact Sheet before students read it, or you may check comprehension of the following key terms during the discussion: acculturation,assimilation,racialization,WhiteSupremacy,andantisemitism.
Next, in small groups or as a class, ask students to discuss and respond to the following questions:
● What does acculturation and assimilation mean? Why do people acculturate or assimilate?
oSuggestedresponsestosecondquestion: To fit in, make friends, succeed in school, get a job, not feel different, or because after living and going to school in the new culture and language, they feel part of the dominant culture.
● What does a member of an ethnic group gain from assimilation? What does a member of an ethnic group lose from assimilation?
o Suggestedresponses: Gains: a sense of belonging, success in school and jobs, a new positive hyphenated culture and identity. Losses: lack of connection to their parents’ culture, gap between generations, loss of language, traditions, and religious practices.
● What are some of the ways Jews have been racially categorized? What does racialization mean? o Suggestedresponses: While Jews are not a racial group, they have been categorized as non-white, as the “Hebrew race,” seen by Nazis as an inferior race, seen by White Supremacists as non-white, as threatening to replace white people, and as a threat to racial purity. Racialization is when a dominant group decides another group is a separate lower race.
● What were some of the push factors for Jewish immigration in the 19th and 20th centuries? Why were Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany refused entry to the U.S.? How has immigration shaped the Jewish American experience?
o Suggestedresponses: Jews came to the U.S. as immigrants and refugees fleeing persecution, pogroms, poverty, war, and revolution in the 19th and 20th centuries. Anti-Jewish prejudice in the U.S. in the 1930s and U.S. immigration law prevented most Jewish refugees from being admitted during the Holocaust, dooming Jews to their deaths in Nazi-occupied Europe. Jewish immigration experiences and family histories of escaping persecution have made many Jewish Americans empathetic to the plight of other immigrant and refugee groups in the U.S. today.
● In what way(s) do you think the Holocaust shifted perceptions of Jews in American society?
o Suggestedresponses: Before the Holocaust, Jews experienced a lot of open discrimination. After learning how prejudice led to the genocide of the Holocaust, more overt forms of anti-Jewish discrimination decreased but hatred of Jews did not go away.
● Based on what we have learned about changes in how Jews have been racially categorized, what conclusions can we draw about race as a social construct?
o Suggestedresponses: If light-skinned Jews can be categorized as non-white or white, then racial categories and boundaries are socially constructed and can and do change.
● What are some of the noteworthy contributions Jewish Americans have made to American society?
o Suggestedresponses: Jews have been leaders in the labor, civil rights, feminist, and other rights movements; contributors and founders in the film industry, in American music, literature, and comedy, and in science, and medicine.
● What is antisemitism? How does anti-Jewish hate show up in different ways?
JEWISHAMERICANS:IDENTITY,HISTORY,ANDEXPERIENC
o Suggestedresponses: Antisemitism is anti-Jewish prejudice or hate. It often shows up through Holocaust or Nazi imagery that is used to intimidate or threaten Jewish students. It shows up with Jewish students being excluded from diversity discussions or allyship, or in being excluded for not disassociating themselves from Israel. It also shows up in accusations that the Jewish “race” threatens white purity. Historically, Jews faced discrimination in jobs, education, housing, and social acceptance.
MakingConnections
What parallels are there between Jewish Americans and other American ethnic groups?
o Suggested responses: Experiences of immigration and being refugees, prejudice and discrimination, assimilation and acculturation, connection to origins and traditions, contributions, and communal pride.
How have other groups responded to prejudice and discrimination?
o Suggested responses: Activism, legislation, education, ethnic pride, celebratory events, seeking representation, standing up for others experiencing discrimination.
6. CONCLUSION
In an Exit Slip, or as a group discussion, have students reflect on what they have learned in this lesson. The following questions can help guide the discussion:
1. Name some ways Jewish Americans are connected as an ethnic group, how are they internally diverse, and what you have learned about Jewish American history and experiences?
2. When you think about your individual and group identities, what are some things that connect the group, and some ways your identity reflects diversity within that group?
3. How are the experiences of Jewish Americans distinct from other groups’ experiences?
7. EXTENSION ACTIVITIES
1. Through the resources from this lesson and external research, students have been provided with detailed information on the positive impact Jewish Americans have made on society. To spotlight these contributions, have students create social media style posts that highlight three reasons Jewish Americans should be recognized and celebrated alongside other American ethnic groups, for example with Jewish American Heritage Month, celebrated in May (no actual social media accounts are needed, as this can be done using templates here , or use your own).
2. Have students conduct research about Jewish American contributions to American society and evaluate how these contributions have impacted their lives or the lives of others. Students could focus on contributions in particular fields, such as science, medicine, literature, art, music, politics, law, business, sports, entertainment, etc. Students can use people from the Jewish Americans: Identity, History, and Experience Fact Sheet or follow their own interests. Their research and discoveries can be presented in a variety of ways, such as a multimedia presentation, a digital or traditional poster, a speech, a written biography, etc. Students can use people from the Jewish Americans: Identity, History, and Experience Face Sheet, the Weitzman National Museum ofAmerican Jewish History Hall of Fame virtual exhibit, or follow their own interests.
3. Ask students to choose one aspect of their own identity and write a one-paragraph reflection on why that aspect of their identity is important to them. Please complete: “I am (chooseanaspectofidentity) because …, and it is important to me because ….”
Jewish Americans: Identity, History, and Experience Fact Sheet
Jewish American Diversity Fact Sheet
Jewish Americans have come to the United States from all over the world and have brought a rich variety of different Jewish cultural traditions with them.
The Jewish people originated about 3,000 years ago in Southwest Asia, in the land of Israel.
Jewish Americans, like Jews everywhere, feel a strong connection to each other and to the ancestral homeland of Israel. Jewish tradition and rituals reinforce these connections in many ways, from the content and direction of daily prayers to Jewish holidays. For example, Jews around the world conclude the Passover Seder with “Next year in Jerusalem.”
Jews are a distinct ethnic group connected by rich traditions, thousands of years of history, ancestry, language, and religion. Jewish American ethnic identity may be expressed through food, language, holidays, celebrations, a feeling of connectedness to other Jews (Jewish peoplehood), remembrances of historical and ancestral experiences, connections to Israel, a commitment to social justice, and cultural elements such as music, literature, art, and philosophy that are also part of Jewish life.
Jews do not fit exclusively into predefined categories, and frequently self-identify as both an ethnic group and a people.
o Jewish Americans are an ethnic group among diverse American ethnic groups.
o The concept of Jewish peoplehood means that Jews around the world are connected to each other across time and geography and share a common destiny.
There are several major Jewish ethnic subgroups:
o Mizrahi Jews are racially diverse Arabic- and Farsi-speaking Jews indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa for over 2,500 years.
o Sephardic Jews are originally Judeo-Spanish or Ladino-speaking Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal to North Africa, the Ottoman Empire, and Central and South America, beginning with Spain’s expulsion in 1492.
o Ethiopian Jews are Amharic-speaking Jews originally from Ethiopia.
o Ashkenazi Jews are or were Yiddish-speaking Eastern and Central European Jews.
Major languages and literature of Jewish expression include English, Hebrew, Arabic, Yiddish, Ladino, and Farsi. Hebrew, the language of Jewish scripture, is often a lingua franca that has united different Jewish ethnic subgroups.
The physical appearance of Jewish Americans is very diverse, and skin color can range from light skinned to dark skinned, and includes Middle Eastern Jews, African American Jews, Asian American Jews, Latino/a/x Jews, and Native American Jews. Jewish families include multiracial households and there are diverse appearances both within families and within communities.
The majority of Jewish Americans emigrated from Eastern Europe, and while their racial appearance often reflects this, there is a range of physical appearances, reflecting the movement of Jews over time and place.
For many Jews, Jewish identity is primary, but they may be classified by others based on their skin color. Therefore, Jews often experience a divergence between internal identity and external classification.
Other Jewish Americans or their families emigrated from the Middle East (Iran, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Yemen), North Africa (Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco), East Africa (Ethiopia), Central Asia (Bukharan Jews from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan), Central and South America, and beyond, and are of Mizrachi and Sephardic heritage.
American Judaism has a range of religious denominations, including Reform, Reconstructionist, Conservative, and Orthodox, with a range of observances and practices. At the same time, Jews
are united by shared sacred texts, like the Torah, by celebrations, traditions, and a feeling of connection to other Jews around the world.
Jewish Americans have a wide range of opinions and beliefs about what it means to be Jewish, how Jewish identity is defined, and the extent to which they identify with the religion of Judaism.
Across Jewish denominations, ancestry marks a person as Jewish regardless of the individual’s personal level of religious observance. Traditionally, a person is considered Jewish if born to a Jewish mother. Reform Jews among others consider a person with a Jewish father to also be Jewish.
Jews consider a person who converts to Judaism, without Jewish ancestry, to be as Jewish as any other Jew.
Jews are part of the Jewish American community by birth, adoption, marriage, and by throwing their lot in with the Jewish people through conversion or being part of a Jewish family
Douglas Rushkoff is a writer, journalist, and professor of media studies. “Jews are not a tribe but an amalgamation of tribes around a single premise that human beings have a role. Judaism dared to make human beings responsible for this realm. Instead of depending on the gods for food and protection, we decided to enact God, ourselves, and to depend on one another. So out of the death cults of Mitzrayim [Egypt] came a repudiation of idolatry and a way of living that celebrated life itself. To say “l’chaim [to life]” was new, revolutionary, even naughty. It overturned sacred truths in favor of sacred living.… It’s important to me that those, who throughout our history, have attacked the Jews on the basis of blood not be allowed to redefine our indescribable process or our internally evolving civilization. We are attacked for our refusal to accept the boundaries, yet sometimes we incorporate these very attacks into our thinking and beliefs. It was Pharaoh who first used the term Am Yisrael [People of Israel] in Torah, fearing a people who might replicate like bugs and not support him in a war. It was the Spanish of the Inquisition who invented the notion of Jewish blood, looking for a new reason to murder those who had converted to Catholicism. It was Hitler, via Jung, who spread the idea of a Jewish “genetic memory” capable of instilling an uncooperative nature in even those with partial Jewish ancestry. And it was Danny Pearl’s killers who defined his Judaism as a sin of birth. I refuse these definitions. Yes, our parents pass our Judaism on to us, but not through their race, blood, or genes — it is through their teaching, their love, and their spirit. Judaism is not bestowed; it is enacted. Judaism is not a boundary; it is the force that breaks down boundaries. And Judaism is the refusal to let anyone tell us otherwise.” (pages 90–91)
1. Highlight or bold/underline a sentence or phrase from the excerpt that leaves a lasting impression on you. Explain your selection.
2. What elements of their identity does the author stress (culture, family, ancestry, history, religion, social justice, community, etc.)?
3. What do you think being Jewish means to the person in the excerpt?
4. Why do Jewish Americans not fit neatly into racial and religious categories?
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court from 1993 to 2020 and advocate for women’s rights. “I say who I am in certain visible signs. The command from Deuteronomy appears in artworks, in Hebrew letters, on three walls and a table in my chambers. “Zedek, zedek, tirdof,” Justice, Justice shalt thou pursue,” these artworks proclaim; they are ever-present reminders to me what judges must do “that they may thrive.” There is also a large silver mezuzah [Torah verses in a small case] on my door post… I am a judge, born, raised, and proud of being a Jew. The demand for justice runs through the entirety of Jewish history and Jewish tradition. I hope, in all the years I have the good fortune to serve on the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States, I will have the strength and courage to remain steadfast in the service of that demand.” (pages 201–202)
1. Highlight or bold/underline a sentence or phrase from the excerpt that leaves a lasting impression on you. Explain your selection.
2. What elements of their identity does the author stress (culture, family, ancestry, history, religion, social justice, community, etc.)?
3. What do you think being Jewish means to the person in the excerpt?
4. Why do Jewish Americans not fit neatly into racial and religious categories?
Naim Dangoor was a leader of Iraqi Jewry outside Iraq. The location of Babylonia is primarily modern-day Iraq. “When I was a young boy a teacher at school asked me, “Why are you a Jew?” I, with all the practicality of youth, replied, because I was born one!” There is, however, something in this sentiment that rings truer than one might think Judaism is a birthright, a glorious gift from one’s forefathers of faith, culture, and heritage. For me, it is this: my strong Babylonian heritage, the heritage that Daniel Pearl also shared, his mother having been born in Baghdad, that makes me so proud to be a Jew. Babylonia was one of the main birthplaces of the Jewish people, from where Abraham emerged as a founder, and later from where the Babylonian Talmud, forming the framework for Rabbinic Judaism, was created. Its glorious Jewish intellectual eminence fanned out across the known world for more than a thousand years. Currently the descendants of this tradition are spread throughout the globe.” (pages 97–98)
1. Highlight or bold/underline a sentence or phrase from the excerpt that leaves a lasting impression on you. Explain your selection.
2. What elements of their identity does the author stress (culture, family, ancestry, history, religion, social justice, community, etc.)?
3. What do you think being Jewish means to the person in the excerpt?
4. Why do Jewish Americans not fit neatly into racial and religious categories?
Norman Lear is a writer, producer, and social activist. “I identify with everything in life as a Jew. The Jewish contribution over the centuries to literature, art, science, theater, music, philosophy, the humanities, public policy, and the field of philanthropy awes me and fills me with pride and inspiration. As to Judaism, the religion: I love the congregation and find myself less interested in the ritual. If that describes me to others as a “cultural Jew,” I have failed. My description, as I feel it, would be: total Jew.” (page 34)
1. Highlight or bold/underline a sentence or phrase from the excerpt that leaves a lasting impression on you. Explain your selection.
2. What elements of their identity does the author stress (culture, family, ancestry, history, religion, social justice, community, etc.)?
3. What do you think being Jewish means to the person in the excerpt?
4. Why do Jewish Americans not fit neatly into racial and religious categories?
Rabbi Angela Warnick Buchdahl is an Asian American Rabbi ordained by Hebrew Union College. She spent her college summers working as head song leader at Camp Swig, a Reform Jewish camp in Saratoga, California. “My father is a Jew and my mother is a Korean Buddhist. As the child of a mother who carried her own distinct ethnic and cultural traditions — and wore them on her face — I internalized the belief that I can never be “fully Jewish” because I could never be “purely” Jewish. My daily reminders included strangers’ comments “Funny you don’t look Jewish”), other Jews’ challenges to my halakhic [Jewish law] status, and every look in the mirror. Jewish identity is not solely a religious identification, but also a cultural and ethnic marker. While we have been a “mixed multitude” since Biblical times, over the centuries the idea of a Jewish race became popularized. After all, Jews have their own language, foods, even genetic diseases. But what does the Jewish “race” mean to you if you are Black and Jewish? Or Arab and Jewish? Or even German and Jewish, for that matter? How should Jewish identity be understood, given that Am Yisrael [people of Israel] reflects the faces of so many nations? Years ago… I called my mother to declare that I no longer wanted to be Jewish. I did not look Jewish. I did not carry a Jewish name, and I no longer wanted the heavy burden of having to explain and prove myself every time I entered a new Jewish community. My Buddhist mother’s response was profoundly simple: “Is that possible?” At that moment I realized I could no sooner stop being a Jew than I can stop being Korean, or female, or me. Judaism might not be my “race” but it is an internal identification as indestructible as my DNA. Jewish identity remains a complicated and controversial issue in the Jewish community. Ultimately, Judaism cannot be about race, but must be a way of walking in this world that transcends racial lines. Only then will the “mixed multitude” truly be Am Yisrael.” (pages 19-20)
1. Highlight or bold/underline a sentence or phrase from the excerpt that leaves a lasting impression on you. Explain your selection.
2. What elements of their identity does the author stress (culture, family, ancestry, history, religion, social justice, community, etc.)?
3. What do you think being Jewish means to the person in the excerpt?
4. Why do Jewish Americans not fit neatly into racial and religious categories?
Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie is President Emeritus of the Union for Reform Judaism who focuses on interfaith relations and social justice. “I am Jewish. This means, above all else, that I was present at Sinai and that when the Torah was given on that mountain, my DNA was to be found in the crowd… A people is usually defined by race, origin, language, territory or statehood, and none of these categories is an obvious common denominator for the worldwide Jewish people. Peoplehood is a puzzling concept for modern Jews, particularly the younger ones, who often cannot understand what connects them to other Jews in Moscow, Buenos Aires, and Tel Aviv. But I am convinced, to the depth of my being, that Jewish destiny is a collective destiny… It is the covenant at Sinai that links all Jews, including non-observant ones, in a bond of shared responsibility. And if we hope to strengthen the unity and interdependence of the Jewish people, we will have to revive the religious ideas on which these notions are based.” (pages 114–115)
1. Highlight or bold/underline a sentence or phrase from the excerpt that leaves a lasting impression on you. Explain your selection.
2. What elements of their identity does the author stress (culture, family, ancestry, history, religion, social justice, community, etc.)?
3. What do you think being Jewish means to the person in the excerpt?
4. Why do Jewish Americans not fit neatly into racial and religious categories?
Sarah Rosenbuam is a 15 years old from Southern California. “When I say that I am Jewish, I am identifying myself as part of a tradition, connected to our foremothers and fathers, and carrying on to the future a culture, a religion, a way of life. I feel pride and am overwhelmed with joy when I declare that I am part of this incredible people, our people Israel.” (page 54)
1. Highlight or bold/underline a sentence or phrase from the excerpt that leaves a lasting impression on you. Explain your selection.
2. What elements of their identity does the author stress (culture, family, ancestry, history, religion, social justice, community, etc.)?
3. What do you think being Jewish means to the person in the excerpt?
4. Why do Jewish Americans not fit neatly into racial and religious categories?
Senator Dianne Feinstein is the senior US Senator from California since 1992. “I was born during the Holocaust. If I had lived in Russia or Poland — the birthplaces of my grandparents — I probably would not be alive today, and I certainly wouldn’t have had the opportunities afforded to me here. When I think of the six million people who were murdered, and the horrors that can take hold of a society, it reinforces my commitment to social justice and progress, principles that have always been central to Jewish history and tradition. For those of us who hold elected office, governing in this complex country can often be difficult. My experience is that bigotry and prejudice in diverse societies ultimately leads to some form of violence, and we must be constantly vigilant against this. Our Jewish culture is one that values tolerance with an enduring spirit of democracy. If I’ve learned anything from the past and from my heritage, it’s that it takes all of us who cherish beauty and humankind to be mindful and respectful of one another. Every day we’re called upon to put aside our animosities, to search together for common ground, and to settle differences before they fester and become problems. Despite terrible events, so deeply etched in their souls, Jews continue to be taught to do their part in repairing the world. That is why I’ve dedicated my life to the pursuit of justice; sought equality for the underdog; and fought for the rights of every person regardless of their race, creed, color, sex, or sexual orientation, to live a safe, good life. For me that’s what it means to be a Jew, and every day I rededicate myself to that ideal.” (pages 228–229)
1. Highlight or bold/underline a sentence or phrase from the excerpt that leaves a lasting impression on you. Explain your selection.
2. What elements of their identity does the author stress (culture, family, ancestry, history, religion, social justice, community, etc.)?
3. What do you think being Jewish means to the person in the excerpt?
4. Why do Jewish Americans not fit neatly into racial and religious categories?
Senator Joe Lieberman is a former U.S. Senator from Connecticut from 1989 to 2013, and a Vice-Presidential candidate in 2000. “What does being Jewish mean to me? To me, being Jewish means having help in answering life’s most fundamental questions. How did I come to this place? And, now that I am here, how should I live? My faith, which has anchored my life, begins with a joyful gratitude that there is a God who created the universe and then, because He continued to care for what He created, gave us laws and values to order and improve our lives. God also gave us a purpose and a destiny —to do justice and to protect, indeed to perfect, the human community and natural environment. Being Jewish in America also means feeling a special love for this country, which has provided such unprecedented freedom and opportunity to the millions who have come and lived here. My parents raised me to believe that I did not have to mute my religious faith or ethnic identity to be a good American, that, on the contrary, America invites all its people to be what they are and believe what they wish…. Jews around the world and all who love freedom— the freedom to think, to speak, to write, to question, to pray—will hold Daniel [Pearl] near to our hearts, and from his courage we will draw internal light and strength.” (pages 107-108)
1. Highlight or bold/underline a sentence or phrase from the excerpt that leaves a lasting impression on you. Explain your selection. 2. What elements of their identity does the author stress (culture, family, ancestry, history, religion, social justice, community, etc.)? 3. What do you think being Jewish means to the person in the excerpt? 4. Why do Jewish Americans not fit neatly into racial and religious categories?
Jewish Americans: Identity, History, and Experience Fact Sheet
● The first Jews to arrive in 1654 to what became the United States were Sephardic Portuguese Jews from Brazil, who fled the Portuguese expulsion and Inquisition. The American Jewish community was predominantly Sephardic through the first decades of the U.S.
● From 1840 to 1880, Jewish immigrants were primarily from Central Europe and Germany, fleeing poverty, persecution, anti-Jewish violence, and revolution. During this time, the Reform Movement transformed Jewish practice in America, created the first prayer book for Americans, and established a rabbinical school. By 1880, the majority of U.S. synagogues were Reform congregations.
● Between 1880 and 1924, 2 million Jewish immigrants came to the U.S. from Eastern Europe, pushed by persecution, pogroms, war, and poverty. White supremacist prejudice against Jews and Catholics from Eastern and Southern Europe motivated the passing of the Johnson-Reed Immigration Act of 1924, greatly restricting Jewish immigration through 1965.
● In official U.S. immigration and naturalization law from 1898 to 1941, Jews were categorized as part of the “Hebrew race.” This racialization deemed Jews non-white.
○ Racialization is when a group becomes categorized as a stigmatized group, and that group is seen as a separate lower race by another dominant group.
● Yiddish became a major language of Jewish newspapers, theatre, and culture, while at the same time public schools became the vehicle for acculturation, Americanization, and learning English, with many Jews entering teaching.
● American Judaism was changed by the large wave of Ashkenazi immigrants 1880-1924 from Eastern Europe, and in the next three decades, by the growth of the Orthodox (1920s-50s) and Conservative (1950s) movements. These movements established synagogues, rabbinical schools, seminaries, and universities. For many decades, American Judaism was defined by the Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox denominations.
● In addition to targeting African Americans, the white supremacist racism of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) deemed Jews as non-white, a separate and lesser race that was a threat to American “racial purity,” and targeted Jews with exclusionary immigration legislation and intimidation in large marches on Washington, D.C.
○ White supremacy is the belief that white people are a superior race and should dominate society. White supremacists target other racial and ethnic groups, such as African Americans and Jews, who they view as inferior.
● In the first half of the 20th century, Jews were usually not considered white in American society and, as a result, experienced discrimination in employment, housing, education, and social acceptance.
● From the 1880s through the 1960s, antisemitic employment discrimination with overt and covert “no Jews allowed” notices often led Jews to enter new industries with less discrimination. Housing covenants prohibited Jews or “Hebrews” from purchasing houses in many areas. Elite universities also had quotas, limiting the number of Jews who could attend them until the early 1960s.
● Jewish American allies to the African American community played a significant role in the founding and funding of the NAACP, Rosenwald Schools, and the Southern Poverty Law Center. Julius Rosenwald partnered with Booker T. Washington to build over 5,000 schools for African American students between 1917 and 1932, and by 1928, one-third of the South’s rural Black school children and teachers were served by Rosenwald Schools. In 1931, lawyer Samuel Leibowitz defended the Scottsboro boys.
● Motivated by Jewish tradition’s concern for the worker, and oppressive working conditions for Jewish immigrants, the U.S. labor movement included many Jewish labor organizers, such as Samuel Gompers (founder of American Federation of Labor (AFL) and president 1886-1924); Rose Schneiderman (active 1904-1940s in the Women’s Trade Union League); and Pauline M. Newman (active 1907-1983), Clara Lemlich (active 1909-1951), and David Dubinsky (active 1932-1966 as president) in the International Ladies Garment Worker Union (ILGWU).
● Jews were pioneers in the new film industry in California in the early decades of the 20th century. This included studio heads Harry Cohn (Columbia Pictures 1919-1958), Samuel Goldwyn (active 1913-1959), Louis B. Mayer (active MGM 1915-1951), Carl Laemmle (Universal Pictures active 1909-1939), the Warner Brothers (active 1918-1973), and Adolph Zukor (Paramount Pictures active 1903-1959). Though there was less overt discrimination in California, anti-Jewish prejudice in the U.S. led many studio heads and producers to shy away from Jewish themes in movies for many decades.
● Jewish songwriters enthusiastically embraced American music and contributed to the Great American songbook (1911-1960), Tin Pan Alley (1885-1940), Broadway musicals (1949-2018), and folk and protest music (1930s-1970s). Among these were: George and Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Aaron Copland, Stephen Sondheim, Leonard Bernstein, Bob Dylan, Arlo Guthrie, Phil Ochs, Art Garfunkel, Paul Simon, Peter Yarrow, Carole King, Country Joe McDonald, and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott.
● In the 1920s and 1930s, anti-Jewish conspiracy theories (later used in Nazi propaganda) were openly distributed in the U.S., for example by Henry Ford’s newspaper (TheDearbornIndependent) and Father Edward Coughlin’s radio show.
● Drawing upon white supremacist ideas about Jews and pseudoscientific eugenics “theories,” Nazi racial theories deemed Jews a separate non-white race (racialization), and the lowest race in their racial hierarchy, leading to the genocide of the Holocaust.
● In the 1930s, growing anti-Jewish prejudice in the U.S. led to the U.S. government’s refusal of entry to Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany until 1944, after millions of Jews were already murdered.
○ Refugees are people with a history of persecution or a well-founded fear of future persecution on account of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.
○ Immigrants are people who have left their country of origin and arrived in another country.
● Some Jews changed their Jewish sounding names to avoid discrimination, be more accepted by American society, not feel different or other, or because they had internalized other people’s negative attitudes about Jews. Starting with immigrants, and common with actors, this practice of name-changing continues to the present day. At the same time, today, many Jewish Americans proudly select Jewish ethnic names, as an expression of pride in their heritage.
● In the decades after the Holocaust, American attitudes toward Jews gradually changed, and overt anti-Jewish discrimination decreased. Descendants of light-skinned Jewish immigrants were able to acculturate or assimilate which brought gains and losses.
○ Acculturation refers to the adoption of many of the practices and values of the majority or dominant culture while still retaining a connection to one’s culture of origin, or a balance between cultures.
○ Assimilation is a process by which a minority group or culture comes to resemble that of the majority culture.
● Assimilation allowed the children of light-skinned Jewish immigrants to change their position on the racial hierarchy from their immigrant parents, though they remained vulnerable to antisemitism. Assimilation also brought loss of community, identity, cultural traditions, and practic
● During the civil rights movement, a large percentage of allies were Jewish activists, disproportionate to their small percentage in the U.S. population. Nearly half the country’s civil rights lawyers were Jewish, and more than half of the non-African American civil rights workers were Jewish, including two of the three men murdered during the 1964 Freedom Summer.
● Jewish women played critical roles in the second wave feminist movement in the 1960s and 1970s: Betty Friedan, Bella Abzug, Gloria Steinem, Letty Cottin Pogrebin, and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg when she worked for the ACLU.
● Jews have also been at the forefront of the LGBTQ rights movement, contributing to major milestones such as the advancement of marriage equality and the fight for HIV/AIDS recognition: Evan Wolfson, Edie Windsor, Roberta Kaplan, and Larry Kramer. Pioneering LGBTQ Jewish elected officials include Harvey Milk in California, and Barney Frank from Massachusetts.
● While anti-Jewish prejudice became less socially accepted over time, antisemitism persisted and persists in various forms today.
○ Antisemitism is hatred, discrimination, fear, and prejudice against Jews based on stereotypes and myths that target their ethnicity, culture, religion, traditions, right to self-determination, or connection to the State of Israel.
● Antisemitism is found across the political spectrum, and manifests differently. In schools, it often shows up through Holocaust or Nazi imagery that is used to intimidate or threaten Jewish students. It also shows up with Jewish students being excluded from diversity discussions or allyship, or for not disassociating themselves from Israel.
● Jews and Jewish institutions continue to be targets of anti-Jewish hate, which can include vandalism, bomb threats, harassment and bullying, physical assaults and violent attacks such as bombings and shootings. For example, in Pittsburgh, PA in 2018, and in Poway, CA in 2019, there were two synagogue shootings with a total of 12 fatalities.
● In different contexts, Jewish Americans may have very different experiences.
○ Light-skinned Jews may experience the benefits of conditional whiteness on the basis of their appearance, for example, in safer encounters with law enforcement. At the same time, they may experience antisemitic prejudice and discrimination on the basis of their Jewishness from people on both extremes of the political spectrum.
○ Jews of color, like all communities of color, face systemic racism, and also face antisemitic prejudice and discrimination on the basis of their Jewishness.
● Jews of all skin colors who are visibly Jewish, from their appearance, name, self-identification, or religious clothing or symbols, e.g., a Star of David necklace or kippah, experience more overt antisemitism.
● Reflecting Jewish tradition’s fondness for the written word, Jewish Americans have contributed extensively to American literature. Among these literary figures are:
○ poets Emma Lazarus, Allen Ginsberg, Adrienne Rich, and Louise Glück.
○ playwrights Ben Hecht, Lillian Hellman, Clifford Odets, Arthur Miller, Neil Simon, David Mamet, and Tony Kushner.
○ writers Mary Antin, Anzia Yezierska, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Isaac Asimov, Saul Bellow, Herman Wouk, Norman Mailer, Bernard Malamud, Elie Wiesel, Philip Roth, Cynthia Ozick, Judy Blume, Art Spiegelman, Anita Diamant, Faye Kellerman, Nathan Englander, Jonathan Safran Foer, and Dara Hor
● Jewish comedians have also played an important role in shaping American popular culture, drawing on their experiences as outsiders looking in on American society. Examples include: Groucho Marx and the Marx brothers, Three Stooges, Jack Benny, Sid Cesar, Mel Brooks, Joan Rivers, Jerry Seinfeld, Sarah Silverman, and Jon Stewart.
● Jewish Americans have made significant contributions to life saving medical advances that have saved millions of American lives including: chlorination of drinking water (Abel Wolman in 1918); polio vaccine (Jonas Salk in 1955, and Albert Sabin in 1961-64); measles vaccine (Samuel Katz in 1958); heart pacemaker and defibrillator (Paul Zoll 1956 and 1960); the mammogram (Jacob Gershon-Cohen in 1964); the Heimlich maneuver (Henry Heimlich in 1974); and identifying that virus genes can cause cancer (Harold Varmus in the 1970s).
Review of From the Republic of the Rio Grande: A Personal History of the Place and the People, by Beatriz de la Garza. Austin: University of Texas Press. 2013.
Reviewed by Thomas Hansen. Ph.D.
This interesting account of a small republic that existed only briefly between Mexico and the USA shows some very interesting histories and traditions that can teach us a lot. From 1839 to 1840, there was a nation between Mexico and the Republic of Texas called the Republic of the Rio Grande, with its capital in Laredo. Some do not know of this temporary republic, jostled between two mega-powers but firmly connected to both by trade, tradition, and blood.
Families from this region had connections to both other republics, often, and there are many documents still in existence showing sale and purchase of land, marriages, and bills becoming laws—all relating to the inhabitants of the area that was called briefly the Republic of the Rio Grande. The author does a very good job of painting a full picture that not involves commerce, history, culture, and politics, but also connects the story of this republic to the author’s own family.
De la Garza mixes the history of the republic with the family history she is able to ascertain through personal records, archives, and the story of the region as found on legal and financial documents. The story is very important to the author, and it can tell us very much about human nature—and about different political forces brought into conflict by a variety of factors: war, environment, need, tradition, and hope.
The author uses vivid language to tell us of the days of the republic, explaining details down to how the dwellings were constructed and including notes on dating, courting, and marriage traditions. The author also shows us the connections among families and the ironic way in which things can change over time, enemies becoming connected in ways their ancestors would have never imagined. There are also stories of love, of loss, and of hope.
The author provides a very valuable service indeed, reminding us of the republic and explaining so much about its short life. We owe her a lot, and we need to teach young people about this important chapter in history lest it be forgotten.
I will not give away the content of the book, something I always avoid doing in my reviews, but will urge teachers of history, of social studies, and of geography to consider reading the book. Both cultural and physical geography are involved in the story, as the people in the region had come from different lands to reach the site and the environment plays a huge role in the commerce and the very existence of the republic. The damming of rivers and the role of agriculture are two central issues in the story of this region.
I would recommend this story be read by all educators near where the republic once existed. It is important history and it is also an important way to enrich one’s perspective of the region. In addition, teachers of the subjects mentioned above can use the book as background reading, to build lessons and units on the history and geography of the area, and to enrich the curriculum on Texas, Mexico, and immigration.
Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future
By Jason Stanley
Reviewed by Hank Bitten, NJCSS Executive Director
“Wars are won by teachers.” Vladimir Putin
This quote published in the Washington Post on May 7, 2024 is the opening statement in Chapter 1 of Erasing History. It is a powerful statement and thesis for this book and a compelling reason for teachers to read the arguments presented by Jason Stanley, Yale University Professor of Philosophy. There are numerous examples in this book explaining the biased perspective of American history regarding Black Americans, Latinx, Native Americans, women, children, etc. and there are examples of how history has been erased in Kenya, Palestine, India, China, and Ukraine.
Every teacher of U.S. history teaches the different views of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Dubois to assimilate into American society at the turn of the 20th century. However, the perspective presented by Jason Stanley offers students in our classes the opportunity for a critical debate regarding two different paths towards assimilation.
“In his public writings, Washington urged Black Americans to prioritize industrial education over political education, and thus to place greater emphasis on their productive potential as workers than on their identity as democratic citizens. As Du Bois saw it, this approach served white supremacy. He counseled Black American citizens instead to seek a liberal education, whose purpose was not only to elevate the soul but also to give them skills to democratically advance their own interests.” (page 39)
Some societies and governments favor a part of their population as the dominant or protected class and discount or “erase” the contributions of other people in their state. The technological advances of artificial intelligence present new challenges for teachers as history can easily be revised from quoting textbooks, historical papers, and extremist views from the past and make them appear as valid scholarship. The increasing popularity of PraegerU is an example of how school districts, Departments of Education, and individual teachers are accepting the information and lessons provided by non-academic institutions. Teachers have a unique responsibility and position because they are trusted by students and what they say is transformed from sight and sound to memory.
Teachers will find the historiography and analysis of the concepts of nationalism, American exceptionalism, and colonialism to be helpful for the development of lesson plans in both U.S. history and world history. It is less about ‘erasing’ history than changing history or emphasizing certain historical themes while ignoring others. Curriculum designers and teachers have both power and responsibility in how lessons are structured, implemented, and assessed. One example from the book is including the “I Have a Dream” speech by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and ignoring his many contributions in the civil rights movement.
This is an important debate regarding assimilation in a society with a dominant class. A current example is the debate of how the working class earning an hourly wage without benefits can assimilate into the middle class. Is the best way to address this through subsidized education, new tax policies, or paying a living wage?
Teachers must have a strong content background in the westward movement, labor, Reconstruction, civil rights, Ukraine, Palestine, etc. to be aware of what is missing in the sources and resources they are using with students. The example below provides different points of view on the 1932-33 engineered famine that killed millions of people in Ukraine.
“The most significant of these omissions pertains to Holodomor a genocide of the Ukrainian people, in which millions of Ukrainian peasants starved to death after Stalin demanded draconian requisitions of grain from them, knowing full well that this would have devastating consequences. In Ukrainian and Russian, the term “Holodomor” consists of two parts: “famine” and “to kill” or “make someone suffer” – the closest translation is essentially “someone making others starve intentionally.” Importantly, although the word “Holodomor” and the tragedy it represents are well known throughout both countries, Russian textbooks describe the event using the generic term for “famine,” implying that Holodomor was merely a bureaucratic accident, and one that affected all of the USSR equally. In Ukrainian textbooks, it is represented as a famine that Stalin inflicted specifically upon the Ukrainians, which is considerably closer to the truth.”(pages 67-68)
Fascism is not taught is most high schools and college courses may not have provided this instruction for teachers. Fascism, socialism, Marxism, communism, and Naziism are critical movements in world history and they are complicated to teach because the are not monolithic. Professor Stanley provides five major themes that are part of a fascist education: (page 78)
National greatness
National purity
National innocence
Strict gender roles
Vilification of the left
The strategy that wins the support of people is often fear and patriotism. In the United States, the theme of national greatness is most visible with “Make America Great Again” and defining the United States as the greatest nation or what is defined as American exceptionalism. However, associating crime, poverty, homelessness, unemployment, etc. with a specific demographic group is part of the fascist goal of national purity. In Germany, it was the Aryan population. In the United States it is critical race theory, structural racism, and making white Americans feel guilty. We see the theme of strict gender roles in the directives to teach traditional roles of women and banning references to the contributions of the LGBTQ persons. The placing of blame for everything on a past president or a specific political party is another effective strategy. Teachers should be aware of these five signs and why populations embrace it.
President Trump delivered a speech in September 2020 when he introduced the White House Conference on American History. Particularly, in the 250th anniversary year of the signing of the declaration of Independence, teachers need to be aware of how President Trump understands the teaching of patriotic history.
“Our mission is to defend the legacy of America’s founding, the virtue of America’s heroes, and the nobility of the American character. We must clear away the twisted web of lies in our schools and classrooms, and teach our children the magnificent truth about our country. We want our sons and daughters to know that they are citizen of the most exceptional nation in the history of the world.” (page 81)
Erasing History dedicates three chapters to the importance of education in both preventing and promoting authoritarian rulers or advocating against democracy and for authoritarianism. Teachers of social studies, history, and literature have a responsibility to recognize bias and ignorance and to select the sources and perspectives that lead to an understanding of the American values of equality, liberty, and the rule of law.
“The dismantling of public education is backed by oligarchs and business elites alike, who see in democracy a threat to their power, and in the taxes required for public goods a threat to their wealth. Public schools are the foundational democratic public good. It is therefore perfectly logical that those who are opposed to democracy, including fascist and fascist-leaning movements, would join forces with right-wing libertarians in undermining the institution of public education entirely.” (pages 121,122)
The movement for school vouchers, criticisms of curriculum, the attack on the 1619 Project, and the emphasis on America’s greatness contribute to distrust about public schools and confuses parents.
“The goal of anti-education is not only to render a population ignorant of the nation’s history and problems but also to fracture those citizens into a multitude of different groups with no possibility of mutual understanding, and hence no possibility of mass unified action. As a consequence, anti-education renders a population apathetic – leaving the task of running the country to others, be they autocrats, plutocrats, or theocrats.” (page 133)
I found Professor Stanley’s analysis of classical education to be exceptional. The extreme right and the extreme left (and those in between) support the teaching of Greek and Roman civilizations. What I found interesting is how each side selects the leaders and documents that support their perspective of government. For example, Pericles Funeral Oration describes Athenian democracy:
“Its administration favors the many instead of the few; this is why it is called a democracy. If we look to the laws, they afford equal justice to all in their private differences; if to social standing, advancement in public life fall to reputation for capacity, class considerations not being allowed to interfere with merit; nor again does poverty bar the way, if a man is able to serve the state, he is not hindered by the obscurity of his condition….We throw open our city to the world, and never by alien acts exclude foreigners from any opportunity of learning or observing…while in education, where our rivals from their very cradles by a painful discipline seek after manliness, at Athens we live exactly as we please, and yet are just as ready to encounter every legitimate danger.” (page 143)
While the above speech favors democracy, others look to Plato as evidence of a strong ruler with a clear authoritarian philosophy. The Greeks and Romans supported gender and racial superiority, owned slaves, favored landowners and intellectuals, and had colonies. These examples support a fascist ideology. Teachers have the responsibility to teach historical context, provide the reasons for social changes, help students to analyze how freedom is related to continuity and change over time, and an understanding of equality, reason, liberty, and power. Concepts we thought had clear definitions have become complicated.
There are more compelling insights in this book than I can comment on in a book review. Teachers of all subjects should read this book, but in particular history, social studies, and teachers of literature. Pre-service teachers also need to read and discuss this book. Let me conclude with these observations:
Critical thinking is essential.
Understanding a point of view and historical perspective are essential.
The current movement away from democracy has been part of our American history for a long time. We see it in the separate but equal policy on race, segregation laws, imperialism, xenophobia, criticisms of the New Deal, Brown v. Board of Education decision, McCarthyism, civil rights protests, Nixon’s imperial presidency, supply-side economics, and in the reaction to the decline of the United States as a world power.
Democracy ended in Athens, and in the Roman Republic. We need to understand how and why this happened.
As a teacher of history and/or social studies, you are on the front line and can expect to be criticized! Our responsibility as teachers is to include the experiences and contributions of all people – especially women, children, immigrants, people of different faiths, Black and Native Americans, laborers, individuals with disabilities, individuals who are LGBTQ, etc. Teaching history includes compassion, empathy, struggles, contributions, and the untold stories that you will discover. Erasing History is about forgotten and neglected history.
As a social studies teacher I taught the migration of Europeans to the New World, the Atlantic Slave Trade Migration, Oregon Trail, Trail of Tears, construction of canals, steamboats and railroads, land at $1.60 an acre, Underground Railroad, Manifest Destiny, Great Migration after the Civil War, Frederick Jackson Turner’s thesis on the frontier, immigration, analyzed The Warmth of Other Suns, Harlem Renaissance, interstate highway system, Federal Housing Authority, selected excerpts from Crabgrass Frontier, and the migration to the Sun Belt. However, Stuck presented me with a new perspective about the importance of mobility in America and its relationship to the American Dream! This is why I am encouraging every social studies teacher to read Stuck.
Yoni Applebaum clearly presents the economics, sociological, historical perspective to the demographics in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries in American history and the opportunities that became available for millions of young Americans. The wealthy Americans remained in Boston, New York, Monticello, Charleston, and Savannah as they had no reason to seek a better life. However, agricultural workers, manufacturing workers, civil servants, and immigrants moved to multiple locations to find better homes, more money, and new social connections. Immigrants moved west and contributed to farming, canals, roads, and railroads. New communities were built on democratic values and traditions and the importance of civics is equally important to the historical, sociological, and economic perspectives.
“Some Americans have become so accustomed to the places with the greatest opportunities being effectively reserved for the rich that it somehow seems natural that they should be. In fact, it represents a recent and profound inversion. For centuries, Americans at the bottom of the economic ladder moved toward such places, not away from them, searching for a foothold on the first rung of that ladder, looking for a chance to climb. Entrepreneurs raced to erect housing to hold them.” (page 4)
“’When the mobility of population was always so great,” the historian Carl Becker observed, “the strange face, the odd speech, the curious custom of dress, and the unaccustomed religious faith ceased to be a matter of comment or concern.” A mobile population opened the possibilities of pluralism as diverse peoples learned to live alongside each other, The term ‘stranger,’ Becker wrote, in other lands synonymous with ‘enemy,’ instead became ‘a common form of friendly salutation.’ In a nation where people are forever arriving and departing, a newcomer can seem less a threat to the settled order than a welcome addition to a growing community: ‘Howdy, stranger.’ Mobility has long been the shaper of American character and the guarantor of its democracy.’” (page 9)
The industrialization of the United States following the Civil War placed us on a trajectory to become more urban and less rural. Frederick Jackson Turner in 1893 presented a thesis based on the 1890 U.S. Census that claimed the frontier of the United States was closed at the 100th meridian. Although his thesis would eventually be challenged, it revealed divisions of values and new ways of living.
Cities also required investments in public utilities, and in finding solutions to poverty, crime, and places for the homeless. The story of the 20th century is one of urban problems, flight to the suburbs, increasing home values as homes were purchased, destroyed, and rebuilt and sold or rented for higher prices. The story of the 21st century is one where housing has become unaffordable for a majority of Americans, who understand what it means to be ‘stuck’ with limited options or no options for the pursuit of happiness.
Stuck also provides an insightful historical context of the historical experiences of Chinese immigrants living in California and Jewish immigrants in New York City in the late 19th and early 20th century. The two chapters dedicated to the personal experiences of immigrants and immigrant families provided me with new information that directly applies to the teaching of immigration in a U.S. History class. The new information that I learned related to the racist decisions of local governments regarding zoning, housing, and the regulation of family-operated businesses. The exposure about immigration for students is at the national level in the news and most classroom lessons. The chapter on “Dirty Laundry” references Modesto, California in 1885.
“In 1884, more than a hundred men in ‘mostly ghostly attire’ wearing black masks and calling themselves the San Joaquin Valley Regulators, rampaged through Chinatown. They raided opium houses, knocked down one Chinese man who attempted to flee, and even assaulted a white police officer who tried to stop them. In June 1885, a washhouse and a store in Chinatown burned down, in an apparent arson attack. Despite the unrelenting assaults, Modesto’s Chinese residents held fast. And following the familiar pattern, they began to set up their laundries in residential neighborhoods….
Two weeks later, the city council obliged, passing its zoning ordinance. The Chinese were not mentioned in the legislation. Instead, it simply designated a district for laundries, one whose boundaries happened to be precisely the same as those of Chinatown. The ghetto that Modesto had failed to impose with violence, it would now attempt to enforce with land-use law.’ (pp. 90-91)
It is important for students to understand the power of local governments and the importance of understanding local laws they may not hear on social media or local news networks. The story of Hang Kie is told as a story that students will find interesting and compelling for discussion and debate. He was arrested within five days of the implementation of Modesto’s new zoning law. His landlord wanted him to continue operating his business to collect the rent. He was arrested, fined $100 dollars (perhaps three months income) and sentenced to 20 days in jail. His case went to the California Supreme Court on the grounds that the Modesto law was unreasonable because it was not applied equally to all residents, and the right to use your own property providing it did not injure others or negatively harm the general population. The California Supreme Court upheld Hang Kie’s conviction as a reasonable exercise of police powers to safeguard the general population of Modesto from the threat of fire. (pp. 94-95). In the middle of the legal arguments, the men in Modesto could not get their white shirts for Sunday worship cleaned so they adopted colored shirts to hide the dirt.
The use of land-use laws spread to other California towns as the state’s population increased by more than two million between 1900 and 1920. In California, 20% were born in another country and 25% had one immigrant parent. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake displaced thousands of Chinese who relocated in communities across the bay. A lesson for students is the context of the expansion of the powers of the executive branch of our federal government is the elasticity of police powers.
The eastern European Jews who immigrated to the Lower East Side of Manhattan presented situations for local government that had not previously been encountered in the United States. The Jewish population was transitory with perhaps 50% returning to their homeland as they accumulated enough cash to travel back to Europe. They crowded into small apartments and were willing to tolerate unsanitary conditions. They valued education and economic success and were passionate about living in America. (p.116) The historical record of the experiences of Jewish immigrants is documented with the photographs of Jacob Riis, personal stories in the Library of Congress resource, Chronicling America, and the National Museum of Immigration (Ellis Island) and the Tenement Museum in New York City.
The issues of immigration, affordable housing, and the segregation of the rich from the poor in 1900 offer interesting lessons for the students of this century, 125 years later. New York City faced a surging population that increased from 3.4 million in 1900 to 4.8 million in 1910. An increase of 67%. The density of population in lower Manhattan increased with the construction of six story apartment buildings on every available piece of vacant land. The area north of 42nd street and areas of Brooklyn saw an increase in single family homes and mansions. The top floor of the mansions were designed for offices. The Panic of 1907 left many of these offices vacant and they became occupied with immigrants in need of places to live.
Henry Sinclair House, Fifth Avenue and 79th Street, NYC (Ukraine Consulate)
There were three solutions to New York’s immigrant problem: exclusion of immigrants with literacy tests and quotas, the expansion of immigrant populations to accelerate economic growth through housing construction and employment opportunities, or regulation regarding labor, health, and zoning. (page 124) Congress created the Dillingham Commission in 1911, which offered a detailed report on the enormous contributions of immigrants but concluded that immigration restriction was in the interest of the country. (Page 125)
Report from the Dillingham Commission
An interesting discussion or debate for students studying the living conditions of immigrants is the argument that fire safety justified the police powers of the state to enforce laws regulating businesses, construction, and population density. In Modesto, California, fire regulations were applied to laundries in buildings and in New York City, fire regulations were applied to the height of buildings. While public safety is in the interest of the public it also justified the power of the state to regulate the free enterprise of individuals and influenced the segregation of neighborhoods by income and ethnicity. These arguments were made by the tenement reformers, although the proposed solutions of the reformers favored one economic group over others.
I included Henry George and the single property tax movement in my U.S. History lessons. My students understood this as a socialist reform to redistribute wealth from the millionaire class to the working class. Yoni Applebaum in Stuck offers this perspective:
“The Georgists argued that if the density of people per acre were to rise, it should be seen not as congestion but as efficiency-with tall buildings allowing families to live in desirable neighborhoods while providing them with ample space, and office skyscrapers doing the same for workers. And if people truly objected to this, well, Bassett‘s commission could impose height limits that would spread the most intensive development over a somewhat broader area. The Georgists were confident in the city’s future and in its capacity to provide opportunities to the next generation of residents. The solution to congestion, they argued, was construction.” (page 126)
The land tax of Henry George lost to the zoning plan of Edward Murray Bassett. The leaders of New York City would decide what could and could not be built on any piece of property. The solution to the influx of immigrants in New York was to limit affordable housing. In 1913, the Woolworth building was built at 233 Broadway, within walking distance of City Hall. It was 60 stories, included both residential and office spaces, and for 17 years it was the tallest building in the world at a height of 792 feet.
F.W. Woolworth Building in New York City
A unique and important perspective of the author, Yoni Applebaum, is the interdisciplinary connections relating to geography, economics, sociology, and civics. These are transparent in the chapter on “Tenementophobia.”
Regarding geography, students can easily follow the building of houses and neighborhoods along colonial post roads, rivers and canals, railroads, and highways. In the 19th century, houses were built near factories and ports enabling workers to walk to work. The Utopian Socialists built model communities where factories were located. With the arrival of the automobile in the 20th century, people with money moved uptown and later to suburbs to escape the sights of factories, apartments, and the noise of densely populated neighborhoods. Students will see the evolution of apartment houses near the business district, then two-family homes, and then single residence homes, perhaps with winding streets aligned with trees.
The economic perspective is very important and interesting. Many immigrants saved money with the hope of renting a larger space for their families and later a home with a backyard play area. These middle-class homes were available to families with incomes that could sustain the expenses of a downpayment, mortgage, taxes, insurance, and repairs. Many of these homes in cities across the United States were built by independent carpenters or homeowners using models in the Sears Catalog. Students can create a digital museum of these houses with images of wider streets with picturesque views as they follow the construction of homes from the central business district to the outer boundaries of the city. Low incomes kept people ‘stuck’ in their neighborhoods. One of the significant contributions of unions was their ability to get living wages for many workers allowing workers to move from crowded apartments to single or double family homes, Unfortunately, the cost of selling a home made movement to a new neighborhood difficult or impossible.
Sears Catalog, circa, 1910
The sociological perspective on the quality of life should prompt an engaging discussion with students leading to relevant applications today.
“Homeownership promoted personal investment in family, child-rearing, school, church, and community; it safeguarded ‘manhood and womanhood’; it protected the ‘civic and social valiues of the American home….” (pages 152-53).
The single-family home, the belief that a ‘home was a castle’ that living in tenements or public housing was harmful, is a critical issue for students to understand even though it likely is not one of the learning standards in the curriculum. Did the zoning laws that were put in place in the early 20th century support the American Dream or did they segregate our population by income, race, ethnicity, and access to education. Students need to search for answers regarding how poverty should be addressed and eradicated. Is the answer with income and property tax policies, the quality of education, affordable housing, higher incomes, or something else? In their search for answers, students should investigate the quality of life regarding marriage, cancer, crime, addiction, mental health, infant mortality, attendance in houses of worship, and life expectancy rates. They also need to discuss how their neighborhood or community has changed in the past 25 years (since 2000) and what it might look like in 2050. They also need to consider the economic and sociological impact of vacant stores in strip malls, where affordable homes are being built, and the quality of life in older homes.
The information about how state and the U.S. Supreme Court viewed zoning laws was fascinating to me. The case study in Stuck references Euclid v. Amber Realty Company (1926). The decision supported the constitutionality of zoning laws at a time when state courts were rejecting them. The basis of this case was the claim that zoning parts of the land owned by Ambler depressed property values by as much as two-thirds. (page 149) Euclid is a community east of Cleveland, Ohio and one of its inner suburbs.
The areas marked U2, U3, and U6 were the areas owned by Ambler Realty. Note the areas across Euclid Avenue with the curved streets with single family residences. If the areas of U2, U3, and U6 were zoned for industry, the view and noise for the residences across the street would see this as undesirable or as a nuisance. What and who determines property use? (1922)
Note the development of the land after the Supreme Court’s decision
Students discussing the implications of police power of the state to determine land use, the public interest regarding health, safety, and welfare. Should the Court protect the public good by limiting the property rights of an individual or should the Court protect the sanctity of the family against unsightly encroachments of noise, traffic, and smoke? Another consideration is that in 1926, the U.S. Supreme justices lived in communities that were zoned with neighborhoods of single-family homes and perhaps large homes for families with wealth.
The chapter titled “Auto Emancipation” offers new insights into the ‘great migration’ that followed Reconstruction. The railroads and manufacturing of automobiles in Michigan provided opportunities for Black Americans that could not be realized because of segregation, low wages, violence, and unfair mortgages. For me, the perspective was a nice addition to my knowledge from reading The Warmth of Other Suns and Caste by Isabel Wilkerson.
The following two quotes might be used for student inquiry and discussion regarding the experiences of Black Americans and today’s immigrants.
“It was mobility-specifically, the defiant exercise of the freedom of movement-that ultimately brough down the slave system. Human beings are difficult to hold in bondage, even if half a continent has been turned into a vast, open-air prison. As long as some place of refuge where people can claim greater freedom and opportunity exists, no system of repression can wholly immobilize a population.” (page 161)
“Black residents earned more than they had in the South, but when housing costs ate up roughly half their gains, they found themselves with few options. They couldn’t build up, and they couldn’t move out. The policy choices made by Flint’s elite left them kettled in a handful of districts, paying high rents for aging homes. But as bad as things were, the federal government was about to make things worse.” (i.e. FHA mortgages) (page 177)
Teaching the domestic issues facing the United States is a challenge for most teachers. This unit includes the civil rights movement, women’s rights, education, space exploration, political challenges, inflation, environment, Great Society, U.S. Supreme Court decisions, and the changes with transportation and communication. The post-World War II economic boom is often lost or marginalized in the teaching of this unit. In my classes, students read excerpts from John Kenneth Galbraith’s The AffluentSociety, Michael Harrington’s The Other America, and Kenneth Jackson’s Crabgrass Frontier. The chapter titled “A Plague of Localists” offers the perspective of Frank Duncan, a working Black American living in Flint, Michigan.
I was not aware of the Edwards. v. California (1941) U.S. Supreme Court decision regarding the freedom of an indigent to move to another state. The Dust Bowl provided an incentive for unemployed and financially challenged U.S. citizens to move to other states. In 1936, the city of Los Angeles police turned indigent migrants away. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the right of U.S. citizens to choose where they wanted to live but the conflicting arguments date back to 1823.
“In 1940, America was still a nation of renters-some 56 percent of households leased their dwellings…. The government could have met the demand for rentals by investing in public housing projects or providing cheap loans to real estate developers to build multifamily apartment buildings close to centers of employment. Instead, as the war came to an end, it chose to subsidize the purchase of free standing single-family homes.
Millions of Americans used FHA and VA loans to buy houses. In 1944, America built 114,00 new homes; in 1950 it built 1.7 million.” (page 208)
The economics of housing relating to banks, credit unions, balloon loans, redlining, zero interest loans, mortgage insurance, and itemized tax deductions are essential topics for U.S. History students because they likely are living in communities with public housing, multifamily apartments, gated communities, cape cod houses built after World War 2, and houses in need of repairs.
The study of the housing crisis in America is also one students need to understand because the current scarcity of affordable housing directly affects them. College graduates with a starting salary of $125,000 are not able to save enough money for a downpayment in the community where they are currently living. In fact, they are also unlikely to afford renting at this income level either.
The solutions proposed in the last chapter, “Building a Way Out” include connections to history, civics, economics, and sociology. Some of these solutions include building more housing units to increase supply and reduce the costs of purchase and rent. Another solution is to have consistent rules for housing construction to reduce bureaucracy and encourage affordable housing near employment opportunities. Other solutions include subsidies for housing or increased wages for people below certain income thresholds, tolerance for different kinds of housing, and acceptance of a pluralistic community. The chapter includes case studies of Tokyo and New York City. The bias of the author is that America has a mobility crisis and mobility is what stimulates the American economy.
Teaching about the Indigenous Population of North America
Lessons by Alexandria Neely, Nicholas Zimmerman, and April Francis-Taylor
This package includes four lesson ideas with activity sheets that can be adapted for middle or high school.
The first lesson examines factors that influenced the migration and settlement of indigenous peoples across North America and different theories explaining the path of migration. The second lesson examines governance of different indigenous nations and their interaction with neighboring peoples. It also introduces the impact of geography on history and culture. Lesson three discusses the arrival of Norse Vikings and their interaction with the Mi’kmaq. Lesson four engages students in a discussion of “discovery” by European explorers.
LESSON 1: What factors influenced the migration and settlement of indigenous peoples across North America?
This lesson will be the first among three lessons covering the migration of early humans to the Americas, and their subsequent interactions between neighboring tribes and early-Europeans. Students will explore different theories about early human migration, how early humans arrived in the Americas, where they settled, and the impact of geography on their settlement and lifestyle patterns. It was believed that 13,000 years ago, early-humans traveled to the America’s via the Bering Land Bridge, a now-submerged geographical landmark that connected Northeastern Asia with Northwestern Alaska. However, in recent decades, researchers have discovered the remains of early humans in the Americas dating to 16,000 years ago possibly before access via the Bering Land Bridge was available. After collaborative research on migration theories, students will write an argumentative essay illustrating their stance on which theory best explains the evidence. Students will locate difficult vocabulary contained within the research articles and define terms. Enduring issues and unifying themes include the Impact of Environment on Humans; Population Growth; Impact of Technology.
CONTENT VOCABULARY:
Homo sapiens: Modern humans
Bering Land Bridge: Land that connected Asia and Alaska that was submerged when glaciers melted and sea levels rose.
Clovis people: Possible first human s to migrate from Asia to the Americas.
Clovis-First Theory: Belief that no humans lived in the Americas prior to approximately 13,000 years ago.
Artifact: Items made by human beings that provide clues to the past.
Migration: Movement of people across boundaries to new areas.
A. “The Kennewick Man”: On July 28, 1996, two men at Columbia Park in Kennewick, Washington, accidentally found part of a human skull on the bottom of the Columbia River, about ten feet from shore. Later searches revealed a nearly complete, ancient skeleton, now known as “The Ancient One” or “Kennewick Man.” Public interest, debate, and controversy began when independent archaeologist Dr. James Chatters, working on contract with the Benton County coroner, thought that the bones might not be Native American. He sent a piece of bone to a laboratory to be dated. The results indicated an age older than 9,000 years, making The Ancient One among the oldest and most complete skeletons found in North America. Subsequent research on the bones indicated that the skeleton is between 8,400–8,690 years old.
Questions
1. Who is the Kennewick Man?
2. Why is the discovery of the Kennewick Man significant?
3. In your opinion, how did Kennewick Man arrive in North America?
B. On the timeline of history, the Clovis people appeared out of nowhere and disappeared in the blink of an eye. Archaeologists revealed that the Clovis had a pretty short existence: They first appeared in America around 9,200 B.C. and vanished 500 years later, around 8,700 B.C. So where did the Clovis come from and where did they go? Intense investigation into clues the Clovis left behind was launched as more artifacts were discovered. The Clovis-First Theory proposes that these people arrived in North America, from Siberia, where hunter-gatherer tribes lived.
(Source: Were the Clovis the first Americans? | HowStuffWorks)
Questions
1. According to the text, how long were the Clovis people present in North America?
2. In your opinion, why did the Clovis people migrate to North America?
C. Native Americans — like all humans—are descendants of the first humans, who lived and evolved over millennia in Africa. Though it is unclear when some of the first humans left the continent, evidence suggests that their migration out of Africa occurred approximately 200,000 years ago, gradually populating parts of the middle east, Europe and Asia. The arrival of humans into North America is believed to have occurred between 45,000 to 25,000 ago, the same time other groups of humans migrated into new territories including Australia and East Asian Pacific islands. We can’t be sure of the exact reasons humans first migrated off of the African continent, but it is likely the reason was a depletion of resources like food in their regions and competition for those resources.
(Source: Homo sapiens & early human migration (article) | Khan Academy.)
Questions
1. When does the author of this article claim humans began migrating to North America?
2. Why did humans migrate out of Africa and across the globe?
3. Using the map, how do you think humans migrate to North America?
D. Beginning in the early 1800s, American scientists and naturalists began to speculate about the ways early humans arrived in the Americas. However, it wasn’t until the mid-1920s that scientists determined that towards the end of the Ice Age, the Earth experienced a long period of frigid [below-freezing] conditions. Glaciers formed in the northern region of the Earth. As more of the Earth’s water got locked up in the glaciers, sea levels dropped. In some areas it dropped up to 300 feet. The land beneath the Bering Strait, a waterway separating Asia and North America was exposed and a flat grassy treeless plain emerged. This exposed land is known as the Bering Land Bridge.
Questions
1. What impact do you think the glaciers had on early human migrations?
2. In your opinion, do you think that the Bering Land Bridge was the only way early humans could travel to the Americas?
E. Student teams will examine two other proposed explanations for human migration into North America.
The Pacific Coast Migration Model is a theory concerning the original colonization of the Americas that proposes that people entering the continents followed the Pacific coastline, hunter-gatherer-fishers traveling in boats or along the shoreline and subsisting primarily on marine resources.
The Solutrean hypothesis suggests that Neolithic fishermen and hunters from Northern Europe sailed the Atlantic in tiny boats made of animal skins 18,000 years ago and colonized the eastern United States.
Exit Ticket: What factors enabled early humans to migrate and settle in regions across North America?
LESSON 2. What types of interactions did Native Americans have with neighboring communities? Indigenous tribes in America formed complex, successful societies like the Iroquois Confederacy, and created governing structures and agreements such as the Great Law of Peace. Depending on their location, different indigenous tribes had vastly different power structures, houses, foods, and lifestyles. Students will determine central ideas; provide an accurate summary of the purpose and definition of the Great Law of Peace and the Iroquois Confederacy. Enduring issues and unifying themesincludeImpact of Environment on Humans and Power.
CONTENT VOCABULARY:
Sedentary: the practice of living in one place for a long time.
Nomadic: the movement of a person or people from one place in order to settle in another.
Iroquois Confederacy: Confederation of six tribes across upper New York that played a major role in the struggle between the French and British for control over North America.
COMPELLING QUESTIONS:
Why do you think is it important to learn about different tribes from all over what is now the United States?
Why do you think the Founding Fathers only adopted some aspects of the Great Law of Peace into their writings? Which parts did they leave out? Why do you think they did?
How does geography currently affect the way we live? How do you think it could affect us in the future?
Map of Indigenous people in the Territorial United States
Questions
Which groups on the map have you heard of before? What do you know about them?
Which groups are closest to where you live?
How could their location influence their way of life? Give examples.
How do you think these groups of people could have interacted with each other?
Iroquois Confederacy
a. “The Peacemaker story of Iroquois tradition credits the formation of the confederacy, between 1570 and 1600, to Dekanawidah (the Peacemaker), born a Huron, who is said to have persuaded Hiawatha, an Onondaga living among Mohawks, to advance “peace, civil authority, righteousness, and the great law” as sanctions for confederation. Cemented mainly by their desire to stand together against invasion, the tribes united in a common council composed of clan and village chiefs; each tribe had one vote, and unanimity was required for decisions. Under the Great Law of Peace (Gayanesshagowa), the joint jurisdiction of 50 peace chiefs, known as sachems, or hodiyahnehsonh, embraced all civil affairs at the intertribal level.”
b. “The Iroquois Confederacy established that each nation should handle their own affairs. The Great Law of Peace is a unique representational form of government, with the people in the clans having say in what information is passed upward.” (Source: Britannica)
Questions
What is the Iroquois Confederacy?
What would the benefits of a confederacy be?
What is the primary structure of the Great Law of Peace?
What historical documents remind you of the Great Law of Peace? What documents do you think could have been influenced by the Great Law of Peace?
C. Great Law of Peace
The Great Law of Peace are “teachings [that] emphasized the power of Reason, not force, to assure the three principles of the Great Law: Righteousness, Justice, and Health.” It also includes “instructions on how to treat others, directs them on how to maintain a democratic society, and expresses how Reason must prevail in order to preserve peace.” (Source: Haudenosaunee Guide for Educators)
Selected components:
16. If the conditions which arise at any future time call for an addition to or change of this law, the case shall be carefully considered and if a new beam [law] seems necessary or beneficial, the proposed change shall be voted upon and if adopted it shall be called, “Added to the Rafter.”
24. The chiefs of the League of Five Nations shall be mentors of the people for all time. The thickness of their skins shall be seven spans, which is to say that they shall be proof against anger, offensive action and criticism. Their hearts shall be full of peace and good will and their minds filled with a yearning for the welfare of the people of the league. With endless patience, they shall carry out their duty. Their firmness shall be tempered with a tenderness for their people.
92. If a nation, part of a nation, or more than one nation within the Five Nations should in any way endeavor [try] to destroy the Great Peace by neglect or violating its laws and resolve to dissolve the Confederacy such a nation or such nations shall be deemed guilty of treason and called enemies of the Confederacy and the Great Peace.
93. Whenever a specially important matter or a great emergency is presented before the Confederate Council and the nature of the matter affects the entire body of Five Nations threatening their utter [complete] ruin, then the Lords of the Confederacy must submit the matter to the decision of their people and the decision of the people shall affect the decision of the Confederate Council. This decision shall be a confirmation of the voice of the people.
94. The men of every clan of the Five Nations shall have a Council Fire ever burning in readiness for a council of the clan. When it seems necessary for a council to be held to discuss the welfare of the clans, then the men may gather the fire. This council shall have the same rights as the council of the women.
95. The women of every clan of the Five Nations shall have a Council Fire ever burning in readiness for a council of the clan. When in their opinion it seems necessary for the interest of the people they shall hold a council and their decision and recommendation shall be introduced before the Council of Lords by the War Chief for its consideration. (Source)
Questions
What do these sections tell you about the values of the Iroquois Confederacy?
How does the Great Law of Peace differentiate from more modern United States’ government documents?
What does the Great Law of Peace have in common with the ideals of more modern government?
D. Group Activity: Each group will be working on a separate area of what is now America. The groups are Plains, Northeast, Southwest, and Eastern Woodlands. The groups will look at/research images and readings and answer the sheets that go along with them. They will then participate in a “jigsaw” and fill out the rest of their charts using information from other groups representatives. On each sheet there will be a section at the top where they will write the definitions of nomadic and sedentary, this will be provided by the teacher (see Appendix A).
Plains Indians Information Sheet
“Many people think of the Plains Indians as people who traveled from place to place to find food and basic supplies. Only some of the tribes in this area lived that way. There were more than 30 different tribes who lived in the Great Plains. Like the Europeans who came to America from different countries, these tribes all had their own language, religious beliefs, customs and ways of life.”
“The Plains Indians who did travel constantly to find food hunted large animals such as bison (buffalo), deer and elk. They also gathered wild fruits, vegetables and grains on the prairie. They lived in tipis, and used horses for hunting, fighting and carrying their goods when they moved. Other tribes were farmers, who lived in one place and raised crops. They usually lived in river valleys where the soil was good.” (Source)
“Most Indigenous societies of the Great Plains practiced some form of hereditary chieftainship and recognized a head chief. In theory, the head chief presided over a council composed of war chiefs, headmen, warriors, and holy men. In practice, however, charismatic, self-made war-party
leaders often exercised the most significant authority, especially in times of crisis.” (Source)
Northeast Indians Information Sheet
The most elaborate and powerful political organization in the Northeast was that of the Iroquois Confederacy. A loose coalition of tribes, it originally comprised the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca. Later the Tuscarora joined as well. Indigenous traditions hold that the league was formed as a result of the efforts of the leaders Dekanawida and Hiawatha, probably during the 15th or the 16th century.”
“The Northeast culture area comprises a mosaic of temperate forests, meadows, wetlands, and waterways. The traditional diet consisted of a wide variety of cultivated, hunted, and gathered foods, including corn (maize), beans, squash, deer, fish, waterbirds, leaves, seeds, tubers, berries, roots, nuts, and maple syrup.” (Source)
“Northeastern cultures used two approaches to social organization. One was based on linguistic and cultural affiliation and comprised tribes made up of bands (for predominantly mobile groups) or villages (for more sedentary peoples). The other was based on kinship and included nuclear families, clans, and groups of clans called moieties or phratries.” (Source)
Southwest Indians Information Sheet
“Most peoples of the Southwest engaged in both farming and hunting and gathering; the degree to which a given culture relied upon domesticated or wild foods was primarily a matter of the group’s proximity to water. A number of domesticated resources were more or less ubiquitous throughout the culture area, including corn (maize), beans, squash, cotton, turkeys, and dogs. During the period of Spanish colonization, horses, burros, and sheep were added to the agricultural repertoire, as were new varieties of beans, plus wheat, melons, apricots, [and] peaches.” (Source)
“For those groups that raised crops, the male line was somewhat privileged as fields were commonly passed from father to son. Most couples chose to reside near the husband’s family (patrilocality), and clan membership was patrilineal. In general women were responsible for most domestic tasks, such as food preparation and child-rearing, while male tasks included the clearing of fields and hunting.” (Source)
“Among the Navajo the preferred house form was the hogan, a circular lodge made of logs or stone and covered with a roof of earth; some hogans also had earth-berm walls. Among the Apache, the wickiup and tepee were used.” (Source)
Upland settlements “included dome-shaped houses with walls and roofs of wattle-and-daub or thatch. The groups that relied on ephemeral streams divided their time between summer settlements near their crops and dry-season camps at higher elevations where fresh water and game were more readily available. Summer residences were usually dome-shaped and built of thatch, while lean-tos and windbreaks served as shelter during the rest of the year.” (Source)
Southern Woodlands “Indians” Information Sheet
“The importance of corn in the Southeast cannot be overemphasized. It provided a high yield of nutritious food with a minimal expenditure of labour; further, corn, beans, and squash were easily dried and stored for later consumption. This reliable food base freed people for lengthy hunting, trading, and war expeditions. It also enabled a complex civil-religious hierarchy in which political, priestly, and sometimes hereditary offices and privileges coincided.” (Source)
“Most of the region teemed with wild game: deer, black bears, a forest-dwelling subspecies of bison, elks, beavers, squirrels, rabbits, otters, and raccoons. In Florida, turtles and alligators played an important part in subsistence. Wild turkeys were the principal fowl taken, but partridges, quail, and seasonal flights of pigeons, ducks, and geese also contributed to the diet. The feathers of eagles, hawks, swans, and cranes were highly valued for ornamentation, and in some tribes a special status was reserved for an eagle hunter.” (Source)
“In general, settlements were semi-permanent and located near rich alluvial soil or, in the lower Mississippi region, near natural levees. Such land was easily tilled, possessed adequate drainage, and enjoyed renewable productivity.” (Source)
“In much of the region, people built circular, conical-roofed winter “hot houses” that were sealed tight except for an entryway and smoke hole. Summer dwellings tended to be rectangular, gabled, thatch-roofed structures made from a framework of upright poles.” (Source)
LESSON 3. How did Native Americans, like the Mi’kmaq, interact with foreign societies, like the Norse?
The Norse arrived North America, but their settlements disappeared. Evidence suggests that Norse Viking, Leif Eriksson, traveled to North America in 1000 A.D, roughly 500 years before other European explorers. Students investigate how, why, and where the Norse settled in North America. Students interpret the interactions between the Norse and the Mi’kmaq. It is believed that the Norse voyage to the new continent was the result of climatic fluctuations that forced settlers to seek new lands in an effort to survive and prosper. Upon their arrival to Newfoundland, evidence from the Greenlander Saga suggests that Norse Vikings encountered the Native American tribe, The Mi’kmaq, periodically engaging in limited trade with them, before the two groups engaged in conflict leading some researchers to speculate this was a cause of their disappearance. Students will examine how the physical environment and natural resources of North America influenced the development of the first human settlements and the culture of Native Americans as well as impacted on early European settlements. Students will research and write a 250-word argumentative short-essay, in which they introduce factors they believe influenced the disappearance of the Norse Vikings. Enduring issues and unifying themes include Impact of the Environment, Trade, Technology, and Conflict on human societies.
CONTENT VOCABULARY:
Norse– Settlers, traders, farmers, and seafarers who originated in Scandinavia.
Viking – Norse warriors and seafarers.
Vinland– An area of coastal North America explored by Vikings.
L’Anse aux Meadows – Remains of an 11th-century Viking settlement in Newfoundland
Mi’kmaq- Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands, native to the areas of Canada’s Atlantic Provinces.
The Viking Compass
Vikings did not have much material to work with other than wood and animal hair, to make it across the oceans, but they apparently didn’t require much more than that to get to where they were going and make it back again. In 1948 a (partial) wooden artifact was found in Greenland (called the Uunartoq disk), which was assumed to be some form of compass. Only representing a portion of a wheel or ‘disk,’ the partial device had notches carved around the perimeter and scratch marks at a few distinct intervals across the face. (Source)
Questions:
According to the text, what was needed, in order to use the “Viking Compass”?
Why is a compass important when traveling long distances across the ocean?
How might the discovery of this artifact change how we understand European Exploration of the Americas?
Evidence that the Norse reached North America
According to the “Saga of the Greenlanders”, Vikings became the first European to sight mainland North America when a Viking merchant, headed for Greenland, was blown westward off course about 985. Further, about 1000, Leif Eriksson, a notorious viking leader, is reported to have led an expedition in search of the land sighted by the viking merchant, and found an icy barren land he called Helluland (“Land of Flat Rocks”) before eventually traveling south and finding Vinland (“Land of Wine”).The narratives of exploration of a place that sounded like Maine, Rhode Island, or Atlantic Canada were thought to be just stories, until 1960, when Helge Ingstad, a Norwegian explorer, and archaeologist Anne Stine Ingstad, were led by a local man to a site on the northern tip of Newfoundland island. At L’Anse aux Meadows, they discovered the remains of a Viking encampment that they were able to date to the year 1000 — That’s almost 500 years before the Europeans landed in the Americas! (Source)
Questions
Who led the Viking expedition to North America?
How long before Columbus, did the Vikings arrive in North America?
Do you think that it is fair to say that the Vikings discovered North America? Explain.
C. The Norse meet the Mi’kmaq
The Mi’kmaq are among the original inhabitants of the Atlantic region in Canada, and inhabited the coastal areas of Gaspé and the Maritime Provinces east of the Saint John River. This traditional territory is known as Mi’gma’gi (Mi’kma’ki) and is made up of seven districts. Mi’kmaq people have occupied their traditional territory, Mi’gma’gi, centuries before the arrival of the Vikings. Today, the remaining members of the Mi’kmaq community continue to occupy this area, as well as settlements in Newfoundland and New England, especially Boston. While it is not entirely clear, as to how the Mi’kmaq and the Vikings interacted, historical accounts of their interactions have suggested that the Mi’kmaq not only engaged in trade with the Vikings, but they also found themselves engaged in conflict with one another as well.
Going further, researchers have since discovered that the Mi’kmaq had developed oral histories that speak of a Mi’kmaq woman’s ancient premonition [dream] that people would arrive in Mi’gma’gi on floating islands, and a legendary spirit who traveled across the ocean to find “blue-eyed people.” Since the story’s discovery, many individuals have regarded its existence as a foretelling of the arrival of Europeans.
Questions:
What areas of the present-day United States and Canada did the Mi’kmaq people inhabit?
How might the “ancient premonition” [ancient dream] of “blue-eyed people” arriving in North America help us understand how Native Americans viewed and interacted with European explorers?
D. Unknown American Holiday: Leif Erikson Day Leif Erikson was likely born in Iceland around 970 or 980 AD, and was the son of infamous Norse chieftain, Erik the Red. Leif, much like his father, was a true Viking from the start, and began sailing with his crew across present-day western Europe and parts of Scandinavia. Nevertheless, the story begins with Leif traveling to present-day Greenland. It was on this journey in approximately 999 AD, that Leif Erikson and his crew would be blown off-course, to a location they named “Vinland,” meaning “Land of Wine.” While at first it would appear that Erikson found something other than North America, the descriptions of the surrounding area and its inhabitants have led researchers to believe that Erikson is writing about his arrival in North America. In 2024, President Joseph Biden declared October 9th Leif Erikson Day. (Source)
Questions:
When did Leif Erikson arrive in North America?
In your opinion, why does Leif Erikson Day have less recognition than Columbus Day?
E. Group Activity—Investigate the Disappearance the Newfoundland Norse Settlement
Instructions: In groups of three or four, students will be tasked with investigating the possible reasons for the Norse Vikings’ mysterious disappearance from their North American settlement.
Station #1: Climate Change
There was a time centuries ago that settlements in cold northern lands grew little by little with the arrival of new inhabitants. Up to the 15th Century, the territories we now know as Greenland and Newfoundland in North America, reached population sizes of around 2,000. From then on, these lands began to depopulate. Early research said the exodus was due to many problems, but temperature change has often been cited as an explanation for the end of the Vikings. According to this theory, the Nordics arrived in the North during a period that was more or less warm, where they could survive until temperatures fell during a period known as, the Little Ice Age.
Now, new research by the College of Natural Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst concludes that summers were increasingly warm and dry in Greenland and Newfoundland during the time the Nordic settlements were abandoned. Thus, the trigger for the disappearance of the Vikings could have been drought. Source:Climate history: Why did the Vikings disappear from northern lands?].
Questions
1. What other regions did the Vikings visit?
2. How did climate impact the survival of the Vikings in North America?
3. What climate event occurred that made it more difficult for Vikings to live in North America?
The settlement at L”Anse aux Meadows was only in use for roughly twenty years or so. It’s estimated that the Vinland settlements lasted the same amount of time.While scholars do not know why the Vikings abandoned the settlements so quickly, there are several theories. Hostile relations with the natives surely did not help matters. Though their iron tools aided them in battle, the natives dramatically outnumbered the Vikings who only numbered at most in the low hundreds. In an early encounter, one of the viking chieftains that lead the group of norse settlers in Newfoundland, Leif Eiriksson, is recorded to have been “struck by an arrow”. It would later be determined through these records —The Vinland Sagas—that his injuries would prove fatal. While it is not clear what tribes attacked the Vikings during their stay, evidence suggests that it was likely a number of Inuit tribes, including the Mi’kmaq. That being said, due to the increased amount of conflict between the Vikings and Native tribes, the Vikings dubbed their enemies Skraelings, which historians believe translates as either “barbarian” or “foreigner” in the old Norse tongue. It could have also meant “weak” or “sickly” or even “false friend”.
Questions
According to the document, how long were the Vikings in North America?
How did conflict with the Native Americans impact the Vikings living in North America?
Why do you think the Vikings were attacked by Native Americans?
When the Vikings explored south of Newfoundland, in an area they named “Vínland” (which translates as “Wine Land”), they were more interested in finding natural resources they could exploit. However, Kevin P. Smith, a research associate at the Smithsonian Institute who specializes in the Vikings, had a somewhat different opinion. He said that Norse texts indicate that some Vikings believed it offered “opportunities for ‘second sons’ of the chieftain who had established the Greenland colony to carve out their own areas where they could be leaders/chiefs rather than second sons.
Be that as it may, there is a leading theory that presumes the Vikings had abandoned the settlement largely due to its decline in economic importance. For instance, Medieval Europe had coveted [desired] walrus ivory leading to the market’s expansion across the North Atlantic. As such, and by the time the Vikings had sailed to and settled in North America, a series of large walrus colonies had already been established in Northern Greenland, which researchers speculate, ultimately diminished the economic significance of the North American settlement. Going further, many researchers have also speculated that the abandonment of the settlement was also influenced by the nature of walrus tusk hunting; It was dangerous, time consuming, and expensive.
Questions
Using the text, define the term “Vinland.”
Why was the settlement in North America important for the Vikings?
What economic factors influenced the Vikings to abandon their settlement in North America? Explain.
Another important question is why the Norse failed to settle permanently in North America. How was it that they could survive in Greenland for 500 years, but could not establish themselves in Vinland, with its richer resources and better climate? Vinland was a remote place, and voyaging there was risky and uncertain, as we know from the sagas. In the early 11th century, the Greenland settlements were still young and did not have the population nor the wealth to support a new colony in North America. Additionally, there was also little incentive, in that the economy which developed in Greenland did not need expansion to America. There might have been some incentive later in the history of the Greenland settlements, but by that time — the13th and 14th centuries — the inhabitants were preoccupied with their own survival and would not have had the resources or the interest to create a new colony. Greenland was a fragile colony, incapable of sustaining itself as climatic, economic, and political conditions deteriorated. According to Thomas McGovern, a leading authority on Norse expansion to North America, “Greenland simply did not produce enough people or riches to act as a successful base for sustained colonization attempts, and Norse Greenlanders may have seen little immediate benefit in expanding in Vinland.”
Questions
How did the Norse colony at Greenland impact the settlement in North America?
Why did the Norse colony in Greenland begin to collapse?
What happened during the 13th and 14th centuries that prevented Vikings from settling in North America?
LESSON 4. How did interactions among Native Americans and outsiders challenge our understanding of early exploration and the “discovery” of America? It is still debated how and when early humans arrived in North America. Eventually a number of Native American tribes existed across the modern-day United States and the Americas. The laws and alliances, like the Iroquois Confederacy and the Great Law of Peace, made by Native Americans between themselves and outsiders may have contributed to the founding documents of the United States. This lesson is a Socratic Seminar. Students will have collaborative discussions, work civilly and democratically to evaluate diverse perspectives about how early humans migrated to the Americas, the significance of the Great Law of Peace on American law, and the dangers of leaving groups of people out when learning about history. Enduring Issues will be discussed in this lesson include Power and the Impact of Immigration.
VOCABULARY REVIEW MATCHING ACTIVITY
The Bering Land Bridge Clovis First Theory Solutrean Hypothesis Trans-Pacific Migration Theory The Great Law of Peace Artifact Migration Clovis People Nomadic Sedentary Confederacy Iroquois Confederacy Saga of the Greenlanders Mi’kmaq Plains tribes Northeastern tribes Southwestern tribes Southern Woodlands tribes
A. An ancient culture of North America that lived between 10,000 and 9,000 BCE B. The first humans to reach the Americas migrated from Asia by traveling across the Pacific Ocean C. Nomadic people who resided largely in the western plains D. Source on Norse colonization of North America E. Group of people joined together for a common purpose F. The practice of living in one place for a long time G. People who move from one place in order to settle in another H. Indigenous people of what is now Canada and Nova Scotia I. Art, tools, and clothing made by people of any time and place J. Sedentary people of Alaska and Northwestern California K. Sedentary people who resided largely near the Atlantic Ocean L. Oral constitution of the Iroquois Confederacy M. Communities who move from one place to another N. Confederation governed by the Great Law of Peace O. Land bridge connecting Asia to North America P. Hunters considered the first people to arrive in the Americas Q. Belief that early Europeans arrived in the Americas R. People who resided in present day New Mexico and Arizona
COMPELLING QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:
Who should be called the “first Americans?” Should anyone?
What could be the consequences of designating one group of people as the “first” be?
Why would it be important to recognize all of the different groups you learned about? What could happen if we do not mention them?
What is the danger of forgetting or leaving out groups of people from history? Is there any?
Which theory of migration do you think is most plausible?
Why do people migrate? Have the motives for migration changed from then to now? How so?
How do we make welcoming communities for those who migrate?
How has your understanding of Indigenous American history and the “discovery” of America changed?
How did interactions among Native Americans and outsiders challenge our understanding of early exploration and the “discovery” of America?
Prepared by the Queens, New York Public Library and the University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Management
Every facet of the United States has been affected by the labor and inventions of African Americans. Discover some of the men and women who created the inventions that improved daily life, fought for fair wages, safety, equal rights, and justice for Black workers. These are just some of the important milestones in the history of Black Labor in America. To learn more, visit your local library during Black History Month—and beyond!
1500s-1865: Transatlantic Slave Trade through the American Civil War
1500s: Transatlantic Slave Trade
The largest oceanic forced migration in history, the Transatlantic Slave Trade began in the late 1500s when over 12.5 million African men, women and children were removed from the continent and transported to the Americas, Brazil and the Caribbean to work on plantations and live their lives in servitude. As a result, many slave rebellions erupted throughout the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, constituting some of the first organizing and labor-related actions in the Americas.
1739: Traditional African drumming is banned
Enslaved Africans were prohibited from playing traditional drums, as European enslavers feared that drumming could facilitate communication across fields, uplift weary spirits, comment on oppressive masters, and incite rebellions. In response, Black people developed alternative forms of musical expression, such as hand clapping and percussive stomping, which became the foundation of work songs and spirituals. These musical forms later evolved into genres like the blues and jazz and are integral to today’s African American music.
c.1763-c.1826: Artist Joshua Johnson
Recognized as one of the earliest professional African American artists, Johnson was born into slavery near Baltimore around 1763 and gained his freedom in 1782. He described himself as a “self-taught genius” and painted portraits of families, children, and prominent residents of Maryland.
1786: The Tignon Law
This Louisiana law was enacted to regulate the appearance of free women of color to “establish public order and proper standards of morality,” and subjection to undesirability. Women were prohibited from going outdoors without wrapping their natural hair with a Tignon cloth. As a symbol of rebellion, Black women reappropriated Tignon production into a major fashion statement, form of self-expression and business by embellishing the headscarves with decorative fabrics, feathers and jewels.
1859: Author Harriet E. Wilson
Our Nig; or Sketches from the Life of a Free Black is considered the first novel by an African American woman. It gave insight into the supposed “Free North,” challenging the idea that the North was a safe have providing peace and equality for African Americans
1865: 13th Amendment Outlaws Slavery
The official end to slavery was perhaps the greatest labor victory in U.S. history. Yet the struggle for equal rights and fair wages was far from over; the same year that Congress adopted the 13th Amendment, the white supremacist terrorist organization and hate group, the Ku Klux Klan, was formed.
1865-1900: Reconstruction and the Gilded Age
1865-1877: Reconstruction
In the decade following the Civil War, Congress established the Freedmen’s Bureau to help African Americans with food, housing, education, political rights and negotiating labor agreements. This period is thought to be one of expanding freedom for the formerly enslaved but in the South they were subjected to violence and new forms of mistreatment.
1872: Frederick Douglass
Douglass was elected president of the “Colored” National Labor Union, and his The New National Era became the union’s official newspaper. Douglass was one of America’s most important champions of equality and the right to organize a union.
1880s: Knights of Labor
The St. Paul Minnesota Trades & Labor Assembly was founded with the assistance of the Knights of Labor Assembly in1883. The Knights of Labor were known for their inclusiveness for accepting women and African American members, however they also supported the Chinese Exclusion Act.
1883: Lucy Parsons (c. 1851 – 1942)
Lucy Parsons and her husband, Albert Parsons, a former Confederate soldier turned anarchist, founded the International Working People’s Association. In 1886, they led the city’s first May Day parade, which called for an eight-hour workday.
1900s-1950s
1901: Up from Slavery
Booker T. Washington, a major voice for economic self-reliance and racial uplift, publishes his autobiography discussing his life and thoughts on race relations.
1905-1960: The Great Migration
In the first half of the 20th century, a mass migration of more than six million Black people took place from the South to the North. Many left to escape overt Southern racism, only to encounter racial tensions in the North as whites viewed them as a threat to their jobs. The Migration Series is a group of paintings by African American painter Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000) which depicts the migration of African Americans to the Northern U.S. from the South. It was completed in 1941 and was conceived as a single work rather than individual paintings. Lawrence wrote captions for each of the sixty paintings. Viewed in its entirety, the series creates a narrative in images and words that tells the story of the Great Migration.
1909: National Training School for Women and Girls
Nannie Helen Burroughs (1879-1961) was a suffragist, educator and organizer, as well as a mentor to the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., who worked to integrate labor reform into the movement for voting rights. Burroughs established the National Training School for Women and Girls in 1909 to combat labor exploitation through education, helping to improve working conditions and expand career pathways for Black women. She also launched the National Association of Wage Earners in 1921, a labor union for Black domestic workers.
1910s-1930s: The Harlem Renaissance
A period of flourishing of African American art, literature, and performance art saw the rise of iconic figures like author Langston Hughes, trumpeter Louis Armstrong, pianist Duke Ellington, and vocalists Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. Langston Hughes was a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance. A major poet, Hughes also wrote novels, short stories, essays, and plays.
1910: The Foster Photoplay Company
William D. Foster founds the first film production company established by an African American. It features all African American casts. The Railroad Porter (circa 1913) was the first film produced and directed by an African American.
1917: East St. Louis Race Riot
During World War I, thousands of Blacks moved to the St. Louis area to work in factories fueling the war effort. When the largely white workforce at the Aluminum Ore Company went on strike, hundreds of Blacks were hired as strikebreakers. Tensions erupted, and thousands of whites, many of them union members, attacked African Americans and set fire to their homes. Between 100 and 200 Blacks are estimated to have been killed and were 6,000 left homeless.
1919: Red Summer
Racial tensions were inflamed during the September 1919 Steel Strike, when workers shut down half of the nation’s steel production in an effort to form a union. Bosses replaced them with some 40,000 African American and Mexican American strikebreakers, an action made possible by AFL unions that excluded people of color from union jobs and membership.
1921: Tulsa Race Massacre (May 31-June 1, 1921)
The Tulsa Race Massacre was a 1921 attack on Tulsa’s Greenwood District, an affluent African American community whose thriving business and residential areas were known as “Black Wall Street.” In response to a May 31 newspaper report of alleged black-on-white crime, white rioters looted and burned Greenwood in the early hours of June 1. The governor of Oklahoma declared martial law, and National Guard troops arrived and detained all Black Tulsans not already interned. About 6,000 Black people were imprisoned, some for as long as eight days. In the end, 35 city blocks lay in ruins, more than 800 people were injured, and as many as 300 people may have died. The Massacre was largely omitted from local, state, and national histories until the Tulsa Race Massacre Commission convened in 1997 to investigate the event. Today, memorials, historical exhibits, and documentaries are some of the ways that the Massacre has been acknowledged and the history of “Black Wall Street” kept alive.
1925: Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
The first labor organization led by African Americans to receive a charter from the American Federation of Labor. African American porters performed essential passenger services on the railroads’ Pullman sleeper cars and the union played a key role in promoting their rights. In the summer of 1925, A. Philip Randolph (1889-1979) met with porters from the Chicago-based Pullman Palace Car Company. The mostly Black Pullman workforce were paid lower wages than white railway workers and faced harsh conditions and long working hours. Randolph worked with these workers to form and organize the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. When the union was finally recognized in 1935, it became the first predominantly Black labor union in the nation. As the union’s founder and first president, A. Philip Randolph became a leader in the Civil Rights Movement.
1930s: The Great Depression
African Americans primarily worked as sharecroppers on white-owned land, and tenant farmers in the south. They continued migrating to the north in search of better opportunities, but due to racism, they often found work as domestics, in factories, and as seasonal traveling migrant farmers. New Deal programs provided some relief, but they still faced unequal access to programs like the Works Progress Administration due to racial segregation and violence.
1934: Dora Lee Jones (1890-1972)
Jones helped found the Domestic Workers Union (DWU) in Harlem in 1934 in defiance of New York City’s “slave markets,” as they were known. With few options during the Depression, Black women would gather daily in the morning at certain locations and wait for white middle-class women to hire them, typically for low wages. The DWU eventually affiliated with the predecessor to today’s Service Employees International Union.
1940s: Women Fill Wartime jobs
During World War II, African American women contributed significantly to the war effort by taking on industrial factory jobs and working in shipyards and other war production facilities. Referred to as “Black Rosie’s.” They worked as welders, machinists, assemblers and more. They also served in the military as nurses, in the Women’s Army Corps, and in the all-Black 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, responsible for clearing the backlog of overseas mail.
1941: Fair Employment Practices Committee
Under pressure from labor leader A. Philip Randolph, who planned a march of 250,000 Black workers in Washington, D.C., to demand jobs, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802, creating the Fair Employment Practices Committee. The order banned racial discrimination in any defense industry receiving federal contracts and led to more employment opportunities for African Americans.
1944: Admission to the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen Union. African Americans who maintained railroad locomotive engines had to sue the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen all the way to the Supreme Court to gain admission to the union in 1944.
1945: Maida Springer Kemp (1910-2005)
Kemp worked as a labor organizer in the garment industry and became the first Black woman to represent the U.S. labor movement overseas when she visited post-war Britain on a 1945 labor exchange trip. She went on to spend many years liaising between American and African labor leaders as a member of the AFL-CIO and became affectionately known as “Mama Maida” for her work. Throughout her life, she advocated for civil rights and women’s rights in America and internationally.
1946: Operation Dixie
Encouraged by massive growth in union membership (including African Americans) during the 1930s and 1940s, the Operation Dixie campaign launched an effort to organize the largely non-union Southern region’s textile industry and strengthen the power of unions across the United States. Spearheaded by the Congress of Industrial Organizations, in concert with civil rights organizations, the campaign covered 12 states. Operation Dixie failed because of racial barriers, employer opposition and anti-Communist sentiment that labeled anyone who spoke out as an agitator. In 1947, the Taft-Hartley Act was enacted, allowing states to adopt so-called “Right to Work” laws that limited union power.
1948: Zelda Wynn Valdes (1905-2001)
Fashion and costume designer Zelda Wynn Valdes was the first Black designer to open her own shop and business on Broadway in New York City. Her designs were worn by entertainers including Dorothy Dandridge, Josephine Baker, Marian Anderson, Ella Fitzgerald, Mae West, Ruby Dee, Eartha Kitt, and Sarah Vaughan.
1950s-2000s
1950s: Post-War Era
Despite some gains during World War II, African Americans still experienced high unemployment rates compared to white workers and faced significant barriers to upward mobility in the workforce. Labor was largely confined to low-wage, segregated jobs, primarily in service industries like domestic work, with limited access to skilled trades and significant discrimination within unions. These struggles fueled the developing Civil Rights movement and pushed for greater labor equality.
1953: Clara Day (c.1923-2015)
As a clerk at Montgomery Ward, she resented the segregation of white and Black employees, which led her to push for change. Clara Day first began organizing co-workers at Montgomery Ward in 1953 and went on to hold several roles in the Teamsters Local 743. She also helped found the Coalition of Labor Union Women and the Teamsters National Black Caucus. A passionate advocate for labor, civil rights and women’s rights, she helped bring attention to issues like pay equity and sexual harassment.
1954: Norma Merrick Sklarek (1926-2012)
In 1954, Norma Merrick Sklarek became the first Black woman to become a licensed architect in New York. Her projects included the United States Embassy in Tokyo, Japan in 1976 and the Terminal One station at the Los Angeles International Airport in 1984.
1950s-1970s: The Era of Social Movements. The three decades after World War Il saw the emergence of many movements in American society for equal rights, most notably the Civil Rights Movement. One milestone for this movement was passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, a landmark civil rights and labor law in the U.S., outlawing discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin.
1950s-1970s: Social Movements
During the Civil Rights Movement, African American artists like Nina Simone, and Harry Belafonte used their music and performances to advocate for social change. One significant event happened when Eartha Kitt was invited to Lady Bird Johnson’s “Women Doers Luncheon” in 1968. During the event, Kitt publicly spoke out against the Vietnam War and criticized several of President Johnson’s policies, consequentially derailing her U.S. career for more than a decade.
1963: Bayard Rustin (1912-1987) and Anna Arnold Hedgeman (1899-1990) Plan the March on Washington
While the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. made headlines with his “I Have a Dream” speech, it was Rustin who worked closely with the labor movement behind the scenes, planning and organizing the massive March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, one of the largest nonviolent protests ever held in the United States. As an openly gay man, Rustin’s crucial role in the March on Washington was often diminished and forgotten. As a member of the executive council of the AFL-CIO and a founder of the AFL-CIO’s A. Philip Randolph Institute, Rustin fought against racism and discrimination in the labor movement. Hedgeman was a civil rights activist, educator and writer who helped organize the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. She was a lifelong advocate for equal opportunity and employment.
1968: Poor People’s Campaign
This multiracial campaign, launched by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference under the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Rev. Dr. Ralph Abernathy, recognized that civil rights alone did not lift up African Americans. The campaign called for guaranteed, universal basic income, full employment and affordable housing. Dr. King said, “But if a man doesn’t have a job or an income, he has neither life nor liberty, nor the possibility for the pursuit of happiness. He merely exists.”
1968: Memphis Sanitation Strike
African American sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee, represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), went on strike to obtain better wages and safety on the job, winning major contract gains. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the strike’s most influential supporter, was assassinated on April 4 as he was leaving his hotel room to address striking workers. Today, AFSCME produces the I AM STORY podcast, which follows the history of the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Strike as told by those who experienced it firsthand.
1969: League of Revolutionary Black Workers (LRBW)
Established in Detroit, Michigan, the LRBW united several revolutionary union movements across the auto industry and other sectors. A significant influential Black Power group, the LRBW had a tremendous influence on the left wing of the labor movement. Their activism played a pivotal role at the intersection of race and class in the ‘post-civil rights’ era.
1970: Melnea Cass (1896-1978)
Known as the ‘First Lady of Roxbury,’ community organizer and activist Melnea Cass helped provide social services, professional training and labor rights education that empowered Boston’s most vulnerable workers. One of many examples is a program she co-created that provided childcare for working mothers. Her advocacy helped achieve a major legislative victory in 1970 when Massachusetts passed the nation’s first state-level minimum wage protections for domestic workers since the Great Depression.
1970s: Workforce and Unemployment
By 1970, about nine million African American men and women were part of the workforce in the United States. This workforce included the steel, metal fabricating, meatpacking, retail, railroading, medical services and communications industries, numbering one third to one half of basic blue-collar workers. Yet, at that time, the African American unemployment rate was still two to three times more than that of whites.
1970: Dorothy Bolden (1923-2005)
Future president Jimmy Carter presents a Maids Day Proclamation to Dorothy Bolden. Dorothy Bolden began helping her mother with domestic work at age 9. She was proud of her work, but also knew how hard it could be and wanted domestic workers to be respected as part of the labor force. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., her next-door neighbor, encouraged her to take action. In 1968, she founded the National Domestic Workers Union, helping organize workers on a scale never seen before in the United States. The union taught workers how to bargain for higher wages, vacation time and more. She also required that all members register to vote, helping to give workers a stronger voice both on the job and in Georgia policy.
1979: Wage Decline Begins
Hourly wages for many American workers stagnated or dropped beginning in 1979, except for a period of strong across-the-board wage growth in the late 1990s. Researchers have found a correlation between the decline of unions and lower wages, and between lower wages and a growth in economic and social inequality, resulting in African Americans and Latino workers facing greater wage stagnation than white workers.
1980s: Declines and Milestones
During the 1980s, African American labor continued to face significant challenges including high unemployment rates, disproportionate job displacement due to industrial decline, and the widening wage gap compared to white workers. Particularly impacted were African American women, and blue-collar African American workers who relied heavily on shrinking union jobs during this period. Despite this, some progress was made with an increased Black union membership among men, affecting barriers to full equality in the workforce due to earlier civil rights movements.
1990: Hattie Canty (1933-2012)
Hattie Canty lived in Nevada and worked several jobs as a maid, a school janitor, and eventually a room attendant on the Las Vegas Strip. She became active in her union, was elected to the executive board of the Culinary Workers Union (CWU) in 1984 and became union president in 1990. She was the first Black woman and the first room attendant elected to this position in CWU. During her tenure, she brought together workers from several nations, helped push forward racial justice within the industry and her union, and founded the Culinary Training Academy, which helps people of color obtain better jobs in the hospitality industry.
1990: Americans with Disabilities Act
Inspired by the Civil Rights Act, and signed into law by President George H.W. Bush, Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act, prohibiting discrimination against all people living with developmental and physical disabilities in the workplace, transportation, public accommodations, state and local government services and telecommunications.
Recent History
2008: Smithfield Packing Plant Workers
Smithfield workers join the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW). After 16 years of organizing by African American, Latino, and Native American workers, the Smithfield Packing Plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina finally succeeded in joining the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union. Despite years of intimidation, violence, and illegal firings by the company’s management, the new local union was chartered as UFCW Local 1208. Today, there is a mural of civil rights leaders on the wall of the union hall.
2008: Barack Obama (1961- )
Barack Obama was elected to the first of his two terms as the 44th President of the United States becoming the first African American president in U.S. history. During his first two years in office, he signed many landmark bills into law, including his very first piece of legislation, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which impacted the labor movement. Obama also reduced the unemployment rate to the lowest it had been in more than eleven years.
2012: #BlackLivesMatter
Formed after the 2012 murder of a young African American man in Florida, Trayvon Martin, the Black Lives Matter movement grew as protests mounted against other killings, including the 2020 slaying of George Floyd in Minneapolis. In several communities, labor unions have built ties with #BLM chapters to address chronic issues of dehumanization, inequality, and exploitation.
Telling School Tales: Rural School History Research
Casey Thomas Jakubowski
In 1998, my first teaching position in Little Valley Central School District in Cattaraugus County New York, as a social studies instructor led to a career exploring the nooks and hollows of educational history across the Empire State (Jakubowski, 2020; 2023). The former school district is part of the Appalachian region of New York State, which includes 14 counties from Lake Erie to the Catskills. This district was undertaking an annexation study, or school district reorganization attempt in my first year. I knew nothing of these events, and was unaware that there was a nearly 100 year history of rural school reform focusing on creating more urban-like schools in rural areas (Jakubowski, 2020). The first major community activity surrounding a reorganization, or merger is the Boards of Education voting to undergo a study. After the districts are presented with the study, the Board then votes to accept the study. If this passes both boards, it is sent to the community in a non binding, or advisory vote (straw). When the straw vote passed in both Cattaraugus and Little Valley, people began to protest outside the school every morning and evening, to “save the panthers” or to “save the heart of LV” as I remember the sign read. My students were pulled from extracurriculars by their parents in order to protest the potential merging of the two districts, Cattaraugus to the north, and Little Valley, a one building K-12 district with just under 300 students. When the “binding vote” happened that year, and the Cattaraugus community defeated the proposed measure, we wondered, “What next?”
I left the district that fall, to move to central New York, and once again, a school centralization impacted my life. A family member’s teaching position was abolished, because the five year moratorium had expired. After a few resignations and retirements, the family member was once again employed. This is an all too unfortunate reality across Appalachia’s schools, as decreasing population, and wealth decline usually results in less money for school budgets, and personnel. I was once again wondering “What next?” This time, I used a Masters level research paper (unpublished, 2004)[1] to begin to pursue what has been a twenty-year scholarly chase through the rural, upstate, and state education department policy of recommending schools which are, according to the 1947 and 1958 Master Plan for School District Reorganization, too small to produce efficient, or effective programming for their children[2]). I also learned that New York State’s policy towards rural districts is as Fulkerson & Thomas (2019) describe it “urban normative” or the urban areas are the norm, and should be promoted as an ideal form of local government.[3] So I dug deep, and researched cases of successfully undertaken and defeated centralizations, or consolidations, or mergers, or reorganizations.[4] The history of why so many reorganizations failed post 1960 became an obsession. I learned from my pursuit of the 20th and 21st century of educational history of New York two major tracks: most educational historians write on the early period (founding of New York as a colony to just after World War I) and second, the state’s citizens have experienced some major fights with the state bureaucratic system in Albany over really basic issues of democracy, local control, and what citizenship means.
Telling tales out of school, as the title implies is often thought of as a negative, and uncivilized approach, yet I view these two tales, about Kiantone and Morganville, as critical, and very necessary to explain some of the basic urban rural divide of New York State, and further the rural anger deployed at government, which observers believe is current, but is actually rooted in Post World War II actions by the the State Education Department.[5]
The State of New York has, as Tracy Steffes writes in her seminal work, been interested since the late 1800s in “reforming” rural schools through strategic aid packages to develop longer terms and more “professional” schools in rural areas.[6] Thomas Mauhs-Pugh described how the local school governing boards were once held as exemplars, because they created “12,000 little republics” that taught governing principles at the local level.[7] Benjamin Justice combed the archive to discover how religious governing practices amongst local Board of Education members often resulted in appeals to the State Education Department.[8] Heffernan’s article on the conflict between State Education Department expectations for school facilities and local board’s realities describe how dissonance started in the early 20th century between the professionals and the public.[9] Chiles’ work on Progressive era school reform describes how Gov. Smith undertook school reform in rural areas as a signature effort among his governorship, and later presidential aspirations.[10] Loveland’s dissertation on the transition between the State Superintendent for Education to the University of the State of New York’s Commissioner of Education and President is a landmark in describing how the first three leaders at the newly created State Education Department had created a policy of rural school reform[11]. As Parkerson & Parkerson wrote in the crucial book on rurals school reform, the “ABCs” or Assessment, bureaucracy and consolidation, have haunted, especially in New York, rural schools who try to survive in the midst of population decline, decreasing wealth, and state policy which relies on a long standing deficit narrative, which Biddle & Azano expose as more than 100 years old.[12]
Having learned about the New York Master Plan for School District Reorganization (which is still in effect in 2023) I began to explore areas close to where I was living at the time, namely Genesee County, and discovered a huge gap in my understanding of the creation of the present day accepted “Central School Districts.” Many New Yorkers take for granted these post-Depression era created districts, many of which did not assume final form until the midst of the Cold War. These often hyphenated schools recall a vague history, or “mystic chords of memory” as Kammen would call it,[13] of the past, prior to the baby boomers (post World War II) entering school and gaining an affiliation as members of those relatively newly created schools. As Osterude describes in a profound work on the Broome County area, identity, and affinity moved from community to the newly created school districts, often built outside of town, and the social hub of the area.[14] Yet I know from my own experience (auto ethnographic history?)[15] the process must not have been smooth, or why would perfectly rational people hold so closely to an identity or mascot, as much of the national research claimed was the reason centralizations/ consolidations/ mergers are defeated?
Seeking to understand school history, as Carol Kammen, or David Kyvig[16] calls “nearby history” led me to the Genesee County Archives, where I discovered the Morganville Question. At the bottom of the Byron Bergen Central School District 1958 Master Plan entry was a footnote, which caught my attention:
By alteration of boundary, effective Sept. 17, 1951, all of the property in the Town of Stafford, formerly C2 Stafford, was transferred from CS 1 Byron to CS 1 Le Roy. (p. 301).[17]
After meeting with the Genesee County historian, and reading the records from the New York State Archive on the town of Stafford, I went to the town historian, and museum and learned a bit about this “school tale.”[18]
Stafford 2, Morganville, was one of the wealthier common schools in the area. A community with a pottery manufacturing center, and a two room schoolhouse, the community provided a grade 1-6 education to their children. In a tuition agreement very common until the creation of centralized school districts, and the birth of a semi modern high school in each C.S.D, Morganville partnered with South Byron by sending their secondary students for instruction. When the Centralization petition was launched, the Stafford 2 district residents overwhelmingly voted no, and wanted to maintain their two room schoolhouse, and independence. In records, memos, telegrams, and newspaper reports of the time period, the fight between Morganville (Stafford 2) and SED heated up, and became a back and forth with the end result of the community locking the South Byron Board of Education employee teacher out of the building. The parents refused to send their children.[19] The local school district superintendent, who is a field based representative of the commissioner of education, was on the side of the Stafford 2 (Morganville) representatives.
The archival records in Genesee county, and the State Archives in Albany record the back and forth memos and telegrams of the bureaucracy and the local residents trying to enter into a positive, less public solution. What became the clue to a second quest was a note on one of the memos from senior SED officials to the bureau and the local superintendent: “We do not need another Kiantone.”[20] More on Kiantone below.
What finally concluded the “Morganville question” was a bit of bureaucracy, and the intervention of a neighboring district. LeRoy, a larger village in Genesee County, had a well developed secondary school, as befitting an Erie Canal town home to the creators of Jell-o. The leaders of LeRoy offered free transportation and free tuition for schooling to any family in Stafford 2 who could transport their children to the boundary line. Using this subtle recruiting technique, the narrative from Morganville changed from “independent” to “LeRoy” as their demands for a school centralization destination. In one of the communications between the Morganville leaders and SED, the justification given for the break in the previous relationship with South Byron was the expectation of a better quality of secondary education for children at the LeRoy schools. South Byron was, in the opinion of the Morganville leaders, too small and not robust enough.[21]
The bureaucratic support arrived in the form of the New York State Thruway Authority, and its construction of the mainline branch from Buffalo to Rochester. The layout of the Eisenhower Interstate system, a divided, limited access highway modeled on the autobahn, was a technology and transportation revolution in the United States post World War II. As the Morganville community and the State were seeking a solution to the “question” of where would the children attend school, the Thruway authority indicated that the disruption caused by construction of the thruway and the needed overpass bridges for state and local routes would be a long term logistical problem for Morganville Children to attend South Byron. The authority provided the State Education Department face saving “cover” to move Morganville (Stafford 2) student population to LeRoy. The Morganville residents celebrated a win, and the State Education Department reaffirmed that the Master Plan was a voluntary policy, and the districts presented in the plan were recommended[22].
This situation was very different than just five years prior, where the Kiantone community south of Jamestown, in the Northern Appalachian region, experienced the wrath of State Education Department, while participating in a “farmers rebellion” that brought to the fore questions of democracy, local self determination and the international questions of communism, and totalitarianism post World War II.
Just south of Jamestown, of the “outlying” urban areas of New York State in the mid 1800s, Kiantone was a farming community along the Kiantone creek, with early settlers engaging in what Fox calls resource clearance in the areas of lumbering and then farming. The Kiantone residents erected seven Common Schools as part of the State enabling legislation. As Jamestown to the north, the residents began a long term tuitioning partnership with the secondary academy in Jamestown. Through World War I, and then World War II, the region provided significant material and manpower, and as a local furniture manufacturing hub in Buffalo, became a large urban center devoted to consumer products, and then the war efforts. At the Fenton- Chautauqua County historical society, the story of Kiantone is well known, and is a special area to the research people, because it represents the hypocrisy of national policy and local actions.[23]
During World War II, the Rapp-Coudert commission was charged by the New York state Legislature with rooting out communists among college professors in New York City. It also became the leading committee examining how to create a more efficient and effective public school system, with a focus on rural districts. After the New York State Board of Regents inquiry into the condition of public schools in the 1930s, at the height of the Great Depression, the report concluded that rural schools were extremely inefficient, and ineffective. Prior to the centralization movements of the 1930s-1970s, New York was home to a large number of smaller common schools, offering grades 1-6, and or tuitioning children out to neighboring districts. The Master Plan for School District Reorganization reported that in 1930, there were over 10,000 districts in New York State. By 1945, there were just over 5,000 (today, there are just under 700). At the secondary or 7-12 levels, parents would send children to villages based or academies for a secondary education focused on the Board of Regents curriculum and end of course exams introduced just after the Civil War, as Beadie describes. The Rapp Coudert commission established minimums to ensure efficient and effective spending on public education in the state. The commission, under the guise of a voluntary or recommended reorganization plan of 1947 (p. 18) created an organized plan to ensure that proposed districts would meet minimums in grades 1-6 and 7-12. Those minimums include 1500 dollars for elementary programming and 1800 for secondary expenditures. The minimums for pupil enrollment recommended at least 1000 students in a district.[24] As these recommendations emerged during the World War II era (1941-1945) the final report and “Master Plan” was released in 1947.[25] As the Master Plan was established, residents in each proposed district could submit to the local District superintendent of schools a request to begin the centralization process. Kiantone, with its long standing relationship to Jamestown, had been included in the Frewsburg Central School District proposed area. After some initial negotiations, one of the Kiantone schools was moved to Jamestown,[26] but the rest were included with Frewsburg.
Trustees of the Common Schools, and residents, vigorously opposed this arrangement, and felt, at the minimum, two major negatives precluded their inclusion with Frewsburg. First, the long relationship with Jamestown was primary. Second, the program in Jamestown was far superior to Frewsburg offerings. The Common School trustees in Kiantone refused to turn the key to the school over, and in August of 1948, the attorney for the Frewsburg Central School, accompanied by a “Phalanx” of New York State Troopers “crashed into a human barricade “ (Jamestown Post Journal, August 24, 1948).[27] A scuffle resulted, with a World War I veteran, who was waving an American Flag, pushed to the ground. In the ensuing media coverage, comparisons with John Paul Jones, a demand for the House Un American Activities Committee to investigate, and a comparison to the totalitarianism of the USSR and Germany were published. Investigations were launched by the American Legion and the New York State Grange into the incident, and then the State Education Department’s response. Deputy Commissioner Jeru, interviewed by the Post Journal, was rather harsh, and described the residents of Kiantone as self-serving, and neglectful of their children’s future.[28] Commissioner of Education Franscis Trow Spaulding, in speeches, referenced troublemakers in rural areas, who did not see the bigger picture of centralization and the need to create more and better training opportunities[29]. Mrs. Potter, of the area, an Albany Normal School trained librarian, became the spokesperson for the community, and led statewide hearings, rallies, and pressures which resulted in some seismic shifts to state law and policy. First, the Kiantone residents created a private school, and the State Appeals court in Buffalo ruled that private, non organization sponsored schools were legal. This legalized schools unaffiliated with formal organizations, such as religious groups to operate. Second the process was altered (after Morganville) so that a majority of voters in the individual, in existence schools were needed to authorize the centralization or consolidation. This home rule precedent was crucial in the slowing down of enabling consolidations.[30]
The story does not end here, as many districts in the Northern Appalachian Region area of New York have experienced this pressure to reorganize, centralize, or consolidate. In every county, districts have faced pressure to examine consolidation. The ongoing drumbeat of efficiency, and effectiveness from the State policy and political leadership is often matched by local and regional media opinions that “bigger is better.” Yet in large urban districts, “smaller is successful” has been supported by politicians, philanthropists, and others. Why this dissonance? As Fulkerson & Thomas have pointed out, the schema of many policy makers supposes that urban is normal, cities are the way, and rural isn’t worth support or investment.
These two examples of school district reorganization, whose stories exist in local archives, which to this point, have not been extensively researched, help fill a research gap into the rural rage and distrust of state officials. The two examples provide a demonstrable dissonance between the words, deeds, and actions of the United States government towards democracy overseas, and the internal state government downplaying local communities concerns that their rights were violated and should be subjected to state level bureaucratic planning. No wonder rural residents in New York view state government promises as fleeting and empty.[31]
I would, in this short essay, recommend that scholars, students, and the curious examine these smaller, more local archives as sources of interesting, compelling, and frankly subaltern histories that do not mirror the narrative which explains the creation of our now taken for granted local governing structures.
References
Primary Archives:
Fenton Historical Society of Chautauqua County. Kiantone history files. Jamestown, NY
Genesee County historical society. Local history files. Batavia, NY.
New York State Archives. Education Department Bureau of School District Organization. File B0477. Albany, NY.
Secondary sources:
Biddle, Catharine, and Amy Price Azano. “Constructing and reconstructing the “rural school problem” a century of rural education research.” Review of Research in Education 40, no. 1 (2016): 298-325.
Chiles, Robert. “SCHOOL REFORM AS PROGRESSIVE STATECRAFT: EDUCATION POLICY IN NEW YORK UNDER GOVERNOR ALFRED E. SMITH, 1919–1928.” The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 15, no. 4 (2016): 379-398.
Fulkerson, G. & A. Thomas. Urban normativity. Lexington, 2019.
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[1] Jakubowski, 2004 (SUNY Binghamton, History Department Masters presentations).
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